from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
IMMEDIATE. That which is produced directly by the act to which it is
ascribed, without the intervention or agency of any distinct intermediate
cause.
2. For immediate injuries the remedy is trespass; for those which are
consequential, an action on the case. 11 Mass. R. 59, 137, 525; 1 & 2 Ohio
R. 342; 6 S. & R. 348; 18 John. 257; 19 John. 381; 2 H. & M. 423; 1 Yeates,
R. 586; 12 S & R. 210; Coxe, R. 339; Harper's R. 113; 6 Call's R. 44; 1
Marsh. R. 194.
3. When an immediate injury is caused by negligence, the injured party
may elect to regard the negligence as the immediate cause of action, and
declare in case; or to consider the act itself as the immediate injury, and
sue in trespass. 14 John. 432; 6 Cowen, 342; 3 N. H. Rep. 465; sed vide 3
Conn. 64; 2 Bos. & Pull. New Rep. by Day, 448, note. See Cause.