Supervening

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SUPERVENING

Unforeseen, intervening, an additional event or cause.

A supervening cause is an event that operates independently of anything else and becomes the proximate cause of an accident.

For an event to fall within the doctrine of supervening negligence, also known as last clear chance, four conditions must be satisfied. These conditions are that the injured party has already come into a perilous position; the tortfeasor in the exercise of ordinary prudence becomes or ought to have become aware that the party in peril cannot safely avoid injury; the tortfeasor has the opportunity to save the other person from harm; and he or she fails to exercise such care.

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