Ellis v Environment Agency [2008] EWCA Civ 1117, [2008] All ER (D) 163 (Oct)
A claimant who satisfies the “but-for” test does not have to prove also that the defendant’s negligence was the only, or chronologically the last, cause of his injuries. The normal rule for causation in personal injury negligence cases is the but for rule.
The principles established in Holtby v Brigham & Cowan (Hull) Ltd [2000] 3 All ER 421 and Allen v British Rail Engineering Ltd [2001] All ER (D) 291 (Feb) are an exception to the general rule, limited to industrial disease or injury cases where there has been successive exposure to harm by a number of agencies, where the effect of the harm is divisible, and where it would be unjust for an individual defendant to bear the whole of a loss when in commonsense he was not responsible for all of it.
