Exxon Co. v. Sofec, Inc.

In United States v. Reliable Transfer Co., 421 U. S. 397 (1975), we abandoned the “divided damages” rule previously applied to claims in admiralty for property damages, and adopted the comparative fault principle for allocating damages among parties responsible for an injury. In this case we affirm that the requirement of legal or “proximate” causation, and the related “superseding cause” doctrine, apply in admiralty notwithstanding our adoption of the comparative fault principle.

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This case arises from the stranding of a tanker, the Exxon Houston, several hours after it broke away from a…