Causation

The loss or damages must be must have occurred due to the wrongful act. Causation determines if there is a connection between the act and the loss or damages. If there seem not to be any link between the act and the damaged, the wrongdoer cannot be held responsible for a delict. (Nagel, 2000: p33). There are two types of causation, legal causation and factual causation. According to Nagel (200: p33), in order to determine whether factual link subsists between the conduct and the loss or damages incurred, the conditio sine qua non test must be applied. In contrary, legal causation indicate that there are many consequences that can flow from an act, however the law limits the consequences by stating that only results one could have predict at the time the delict was committed is applicable. Conditio sine qua non test is used to determine if the damages or loss could have still arisen even if the unlawful act is taken out of the equation.

The Spice Galore (Pty) Ltd manufactures spices containing cayenne pepper contaminated with an impermissible colorant Sudan Red 1. It can be assumed that the company knows that the contents of the spices they produce are considered unfit for human use in view of the fact that this was prohibited under the foodstuff, Cosmetic and Disinfectant Act 54 of 1972, but they negligently decided to manufacture and sell them. Therefore, this is factual causation, for if the act can be taken out of the equation, the loss and damages incurred by Mando’s Chicken Ltd could not have taken place.

There is a link between the act of the Spice Galore Company and the loss and damages suffered by Mando’s Chicken Ltd. If the spice manufacturing company could not have supplied the Mando’s Chicken Ltd with the contaminated spices without making them aware of such, Mando’s would not have gone under the situation of recalling and destroying the products and loosing R2, 000 00 in reshipping and resupplying products that had been sold and found to be contaminated. As a result, it is basically Spice Galore’s fault that Mando’s Chicken had to bear those losses and damages.