Legal Definitions - intervening agency

An intervening agency is an event that comes between the initial event in a sequence and the end result, thereby altering the natural course of events that might have connected a wrongful act to an injury. It is also known as an intervening cause.

For example, if a person is injured in a car accident and then develops an infection due to medical malpractice, the medical malpractice is considered an intervening agency. It alters the natural course of events that might have connected the car accident to the injury.

If the intervening agency is strong enough to relieve the wrongdoer of any liability, it becomes a superseding cause. A dependent intervening cause is one that is not an act and is never a superseding cause. An independent intervening cause is one that operates on a condition produced by an antecedent cause but in no way resulted from that cause.

Overall, an intervening agency is an event that interrupts the chain of causation between a wrongful act and an injury, and may affect the liability of the wrongdoer.