Final answer:
Proximate cause is used by judges to limit the liability of a defendant, ensuring that only those plaintiffs with sufficient connection to the negligent act can claim damages.
Step-by-step explanation:
Judges use proximate cause to determine whether there is a sufficient connection between a defendant’s action and a plaintiff's injury to warrant holding the defendant legally responsible for that injury.
It serves to limit the scope of a defendant's liability to a subset of the total number of potential plaintiffs that might have been harmed by the defendant's negligence.
The notion of proximate cause ensures that liability is not extended to an unreasonably broad range of potential claims that are too remote or unforeseeable from the defendant's conduct.
For instance, in a situation where a manufacturer knowingly sells a car with a faulty brake system, proximate cause could be used to establish the liability of the manufacturer for the accidents and injuries that occur as a result of this known defect.
However, if an injury or accident was caused by something unrelated to the defect, the proximate cause might limit the manufacturer's liability.