A test to help determine whether the claimant’s injury was in fact caused by the defendant’s negligence. It assists the court in rejecting those factors that could not have had any causal effect and should therefore be regarded as being too remote. ‘If the damage would not have happened but for a particular fault then that fault is the cause of the damage; if it would have happened just the same, fault or no fault, the fault is not the cause of the damage’ (per Denning L.J. in Cork v. Kirby Maclean Ltd (CA, 1952). The test does not work when there are two concurrent causes each of which is sufficient to cause the damage. The test would eliminate both causes and that cannot be correct, as both could have produced the result.