McClenahan v. Cooley
Tennessee Supreme Court
806 S.W.2d 767 (1991)
Glenn Cooley (defendant) left his car running with the keys in the ignition in a public parking lot while he went into a bank. A thief stole the car and led police on a chase, eventually running a red light at over 80 miles per hour and colliding with a car driven by the pregnant wife of William McClenahan (plaintiff). The crash killed McClenahan's wife and two children, seriously injured a third child, and led to the death of a child delivered during emergency treatment. The trial court dismissed McClenahan's wrongful-death complaint against Cooley, and McClenahan appealed.
Whether an intervening criminal act is a superseding cause that breaks the causal connection between a defendant's negligence and the resulting injury when the act was reasonably foreseeable and a substantial factor in causing the harm.