[Mojave]

The common law was around hundreds of years

The precedents, standards and customs practiced in the various states varied. The common law wasn't static or uniform.

Read a book.

[jf55510]

The precedents, standards and customs practiced in the various states varied. The common law wasn't static or uniform.

Common law is uniform, that doesn't mean that the individual states can't change the requirements for the different causes of actions or torts. Proximate cause and cause in fact, from way back in 1300's England is the building block for all tort causes of action. However, Texas and New York can have different definitions of what constitutes proximate cause. However, more often than not it is the same. The same applies to the general rule of capture, the rule against perpetuities, and many other legal areas.