whether the activity is socially useful (Watts v Hertfordshire CC).
Explain whether the breach caused the damage
For factual causation the question is but for the omission of the defendant would the damage have occurred. If the answer is yes then the D is not the factual cause as in Barnet v Chelsea and Kensington Hospital where even if the doctor had seen the patient he would still have died from the arsenic poisoning. Where there is more than one cause of the outcome then it must be proven that it is an actual cause and not just a possible cause so the junior doctor in Wilsher was held not to have caused the baby’s blindness as it was only one of six possible causes.
Explain whether the damage was not too remote (ie reasonably foreseeable)
The damage must not be too remote in that the type of damage must be reasonable foreseeable. In Wagon Mound it was held the damage was too remote as the sequence of events were not reasonably foreseeable i.e. that welder sparks would ignite a piece of cotton which would blow in the wind and land on some oil and then set it on fire. However, in Hughes v Lord Advocate it was held that as the type of damage was reasonably foreseeable (getting injured by a paraffin lamp) it did not matter if the sequence of events was not. The thin skull rule means that you are responsible for all the consequences of the damage on the person injured as in Smith v Leech Brain where an employee was burnt on the lip with molten metal which triggered a latent cancer from which he died. The factory was liable for the entire extent of the injuries.