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United States causationalternative liabilityburden shifting

Summers v Tice

33 Cal.2d 80, 199 P.2d 1 (1948)
JurisdictionUnited States
CourtSupreme Court of California
Year1948
StatusBinding authority

Key Principle

Where two or more defendants act negligently toward the plaintiff and one of them caused the indivisible harm but the plaintiff cannot prove which, the burden of proof on causation shifts to each defendant to exonerate himself, and absent such proof all are jointly and severally liable (the alternative-liability doctrine).

Area of Law

tort

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