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[W] Healthcare Centers of Texas3/7/2002
ng of proximate cause. In reviewing a legal sufficiency challenge, we consider all the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and indulge every reasonable inference deducible from the evidence in the prevailing party's favor. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc. v. Havner, 953 S.W.2d 706, 711 (Tex. 1997). In reviewing a factual sufficiency challenge, we consider all the evidence both supporting and contrary to the jury's finding. Plas-Tex., Inc. v. U. S. Steel Corp., 772 S.W.2d 442, 445 (Tex. 1989).
Proximate cause consists of both cause in fact and foreseeability. Travis v. City of Mesquite, 830 S.W.2d 94, 98 (Tex. 1992). Cause in fact means that the defendant's act or omission was a substantial factor in bringing about the injury, which would not otherwise have occurred. Prudential Ins. Co. v. Jefferson Assocs., 896 S.W.2d 156, 161 (Tex. 1995).
At some point in the causal chain, the defendant's conduct may be too remotely connected with the plaintiff's injury to constitute legal causation. Springall v. Fredericksburg Hosp. & Clinic, 225 S.W.2d 232, 235 (Tex. Civ. App.--San Antonio 1949, no writ). The law does not hold one legally responsible for the remote results of his wrongful acts and therefore a line must be drawn between immediate and remote causes. Id. The doctrine of proximate cause is employed to determine and fix this line and is the result of an effort by the courts to avoid, as far as possible the metaphysical and philosophical niceties in the age-old discussion of causation, and to lay down a rule of general application which will, as nearly as may be done by a general rule, apply a practical test, the test of common experience, to human conduct when determining legal rights and legal liability. Id.
To be a legal cause of another's harm, it is not enough that the harm would not have occurred had the actor not been negligent, the negligence must also be a substantial factor in bringing about the plaintiff's harm. Union Pump Co. v. Allbritton, 898 S.W.2d 773, 775 (Tex. 1995). The word "substantial" is used to denote the fact that the defendant's conduct has such an effect in producing the harm as to lead reasonable people to regard it as a cause, in which there lurks the idea of responsibility, rather than in the so-called "philosophic sense," which includes every one of the great number of events without which any happening would not have occurred. Lear Siegler, Inc. v. Perez, 819 S.W.2d 470, 472 (Tex. 1991).
The Supreme Court considered the parameters of legal causation in Bell v. Campbell, 434 S.W.2d 117 (Tex. 1968). In Bell, two cars collided, and a trailer attached to one of them disengaged and overturned in the opposite lane. A number of people gathered, and three of them were attempting to move the trailer when they were struck by another vehicle. Id. at 119. The court held that the parties to the first accident were not a proximate cause of the plaintiffs' injuries, reasoning:
All acts and omissions charged against respondents had run their course and were complete. Their negligence did not actively contribute in any way to the injuries involved in this suit. It simply created a condition which attracted [the plaintiffs] to the scene, where they were injured by a third party. Id. at 122.
LaPorte, citing Doe v. Boys Clubs of Greater Dallas, Inc., 907 S.W.2d 472 (Tex. 1995), contends the harm suffered by Mrs. Underwood and Mrs. Rigby was not proximately caused by its negligence in failing to protect Mrs. Underwood from Jones. In Doe, a volunteer working for the Boys Club sexually molested three boys who were members of the Boys Club. Id. at 475. The boys then sued the Boys Club, claiming the failure to investigate its
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