In
re Arbitration Between Polemis and Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd.
Court
of Appeal, [1921] 3 K.B. 560.
Prosser,
pp. 295-296
Facts: The plaintiffs’ boat was
destroyed and they sued the defendants for the entire value of the boat. The defendants claimed that the damages were
too remote to be foreseeable and thus that the defendants were not the
proximate cause of the damages. The
arbitrators found that the plaintiff’s ship was destroyed by fire, that the
fire was caused by a spark igniting gasoline vapor, and that in turn the spark
was caused by a falling board. The
arbitrators found that damage of this magnitude was not reasonably foreseeable,
though the falling board was the result of the defendants’ negligence and at
least some damage was foreseeable.
The arbitrators awarded heavy damages to the plaintiffs. The defendants appealed.
Issue:
Rule: The defendants will only be
held responsible for the proximate (i.e. not too remote) results of their negligence.
Analysis: The judges find that the
damage was not too remote from the negligence to bar recovery by the plaintiff.
Conclusion: