When is a defendant relieved of liability in negligence cases under Ohio law?

In negligence cases under Ohio law, a defendant can be relieved of liability when a supervening cause intervenes. A supervening cause is an event that occurs after the defendant's action and is an independent, unforeseen event that breaks the chain of causation between the defendant's conduct and the plaintiff's damages. When this happens, the defendant is typically not held liable because the supervening cause is regarded as sufficient to produce the harm without the defendant’s conduct contributing to it.

This legal principle is rooted in the idea that for a defendant to be liable for negligence, their actions must be a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s damages. If an unforeseeable event occurs that is entirely outside of the defendant's control and leads to a plaintiff’s injury, it effectively "cuts off" the defendant's responsibility.

Looking at other potential scenarios, issues of procedural adherence or lack of evidence for damages do not directly absolve a defendant from liability in the context of negligence itself. Instead, they might impact the case's outcome in other ways, such as the ability to proceed or succeed in a lawsuit. Similarly, while self-defense can sometimes justify a defendant's actions, it is not a direct consideration in determining liability for negligence, which generally pertains to