Where two independent tortfeasors each negligently fail to take steps that would have prevented harm, and the avoidance of the risk required non-negligent conduct by both, the negligence of each is a contributing cause of the harm — the negligence of one does not break the causal link between the other's negligence and the damage. A normative element requiring appropriate allocation of responsibility for tortious conduct is part of the assessment of causal connection. In medical negligence cases involving failure to record and failure to inquire, the recording hospital's negligence does not excuse the inquiring hospital's negligence.
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