Does Forgetting Keys In the Car Make You Responsible for Future Car Thieves Accidents ?

In Ney v. Yellow Cab Co., 2 Ill. 2d 74, 117 N.E.2d 74 (1954), a cab driver left keys in a cab, which created an environment where a thief could steal the cab and later cause a vehicular accident. In language that has been quoted countless times in the 56 years since it was decided, the supreme court held: "The injury must be the natural and probable result of the negligent act or omission and be of such a character as an ordinarily prudent person ought to have foreseen as likely to occur as a result of the negligence, although it is not essential that the person charged with negligence should have foreseen the precise injury which resulted from his act.'' The intervention of independent, concurrent or intervening forces will not break causal connection if the intervention of such forces was, itself, probable or foreseeable.'" Ney, 2 Ill. 2d at 79, quoting Neerine v. Illinois Central R.R. Co., 383 Ill. 366, 380, 50 N.E.2d 497 (1943), and Johnston v. City of East Moline, 405 Ill. 460, 464, 91 N.E.2d 401 (1950).