Jesus... Okay Proximate damages...
Jesus I know its not in your dictionary but why dont you check into a case... Or do your paralegals do all the reading... Proximate cause
Proximate Cause
Proximate cause means legal cause for purposes of assigning liability. Sometimes a defendant's action may be too remotely related to the plaintiff's injury to be considered a proximate cause. For example, in a famous 1928 New York case, a railroad employee helped a passenger onto a moving train by pushing him from behind. In the process, a package the passenger was carrying, wrapped in newspaper and containing fireworks, dislodged, fell, and exploded. The force of the explosion knocked down some scales at the far end of the train platform, a considerable distance away, injuring the plaintiff. The plaintiff sued the railroad company for damages. The court ruled that because the railroad employee could not foresee the complicated and unlikely sequence of events that led to the plaintiff's injury, the employee's action was not the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury. In other words, although the railroad employee's action "caused" the plaintiff's injury in a technical sense, the line of causation was too remote to hold the railroad company liable.
Oh and damages
Damages
Damages must be proven in a negligence lawsuit; otherwise, the lawsuit will be dismissed. That is, even if the plaintiff proves negligence, he or she must have suffered some injury for which compensation is requested, in order to have a complete lawsuit. A plaintiff who successfully proves the defendant's negligence is entitled to compensatory (actual) damages. In addition, if the plaintiff proves the defendant acted in a grossly negligent manner, the plaintiff may, in some cases, be able to recover punitive damages.
The outcome of lawsuits alleging negligence can be difficult to predict because the reasonable person standard is vague, imprecise, and apt to be interpreted differently by different people. Applying the reasonable person standard to a particular set of facts is a subjective process. Finding an attorney with experience in negligence cases and skill in arguing the reasonable person standard to a judge or jury is the key to a successful lawsuit.
I see how they are different... But not really... Proximate damages meaning damages caused byt the actions of another... Ask Sandra Day O'Conner she says it all the time... Does that make her stupid, after all she did go to Stanford just like you...