A person may be able to file action against more than one defendant by establishing that the behaviors of each were proximate causes of their damage, even if the defendants' negligent behavior was dissimilar (Larson, 2003). According to the law, a proximate cause is an act sufficiently associated with the legally identifiable harm to include not just the actual physical and sequential cause, but also the legal cause of a given harm. The definite cause is the first point of proximate cause, and that means but for the action, the effect would not have happened. The act bringing about injury must have been the but for cause in addition to the end result has to be reasonably foreseeable to the actor at the time they acted. Proximate cause attaches this element of reasonable foreseeability to the but for test in order to conclude whether it would be fair to hold a person responsible for the full costs of the resulting injury. Cause-in-fact brings about the age old question of whether the defendant's behavior something that was a cause of the plaintiff's harm. The quality of the defendant's behavior has no influence on this question. A person's behavior is the cause-in-fact of someone's harm if it can be said that but for the actor's behavior...

Special damages are given for losses where the financial brunt is quantifiable and can be detailed, such as medical expenses or loss of income. General damages are losses that cannot be identified with certainty or cannot in fact be rewarded with money, such as loss of association or pain and suffering. Punitive damages are given in order to deter the tortfeasor from committing the behavior again (Legal Liability and Negligence, 2008).
References

Larson, Aaron. (2003). Negligence and Tort Law. Retrieved October 10, 2010, from Expert Law

Web site: http://www.expertlaw.com/library/personal_injury/negligence.html

Legal Liability and Negligence. (2008). Retrieved October 10, 2010, from Web site:

http://thismatter.com/money/insurance/legal-liability.htm

What is a negligent tort? (2010). Retrieved October 10, 2010, from QuizLaw Web site:

http://www.quizlaw.com/personal_injury_law/what_is_a_negligent_tort.php

Whittier, Clarke Butler. (1902). Mistake in the Law of Torts. Harvard Law Review, 15(5), p335-