Tieder v. Little
Florida District Court of Appeal
502 So.2d 923 (1987)
Trudi Tieder was killed when a car, after being accidentally started during a clutch-start attempt and losing control, careened across a grassy area and struck an elevated walkway, pinning her against a dormitory's brick wall, which then collapsed on her because it had been negligently built without code-required supports; a medical examiner confirmed she wouldn't have died had the wall not fallen. Her parents (plaintiffs) sued architect Little and the University of Miami (defendants) for negligent design and construction of the wall, among other claims, and the trial court dismissed and granted summary judgment for the defendants, finding their alleged negligence wasn't the proximate cause of death; the Tieders appealed.
Whether, to constitute proximate cause, there must be a natural, direct, and continuous sequence between the defendant's negligent act and the plaintiff's injury, which is a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the defendant's negligence.