Does the phrase “caused or contributed” need to be interpreted as “but for” even if there are multiple defendants?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from Sean Omar Henry v. Dr. Marshall Zaitlen, 2022 ONSC 318 (CanLII):
In Uribe v. Tsandelis, 2019 ONSC 6242 (“Uribe (ONSC)”), at para. 15, Justice Turnbull rejected the use of the phrase “caused or contributed” even where there were multiple defendants. Justice Turnbull concluded that the case before him was not sufficiently complex to depart from the “but for” wording, even though there were multiple defendants: “In the factual matrix of this case, the Sacks approach upon which the plaintiffs urge the use of causal terminology of ‘cause or contributing’ is not required. In my view the factual matrix is not so confusing that the conventional ‘but for’ test cannot be applied in this case even though there are multiple defendants.”
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