Note 206 — Chapter II · NEGLIGENT INTERFERENCE (continued 8)

“We shall immediately see, moreover, that independent negligent acts of A and B may both be proximate in respect of harm suffered by Z, though either of them, if committed by Z himself, would have prevented him from having any remedy for the other. Thus it appears that the term ‘proximate’ is not used in precisely the same sense in fixing a negligent defendant’s liability and a negligent plaintiff’s disability.” Pollock, Torts, 6th ed. 447.

“... In determining whether the cause of the accident is proximate or remote, the same test must be applied to the conduct of the injured party as is to be applied to the defendant. The conduct of the latter cannot be judged by one rule and that of the former by some other rule.”—O’Brien, J., in Rider v. Syracuse R. Co., 171 N. Y. 139, 154.

[An instruction as to the meaning of the word “proximately” intimates] “that there is a difference between the meaning of the word when applied to the defendant and when applied to the plaintiff. There is no such difference. Contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff must bear the same proximate relation to the result as the actionable negligence of the defendant. It need not be the sole cause, and it may contribute but slightly, but it must be a proximate cause in the same sense that the defendant’s negligence must be proximate.” Winslow, J., in Boyce v. Wilbur Lumber Co., 119 Wis. 642, 649–650.