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3.9-19 Reasonable Care
Revised to January 1, 2008
In describing the
duties involved in this case, I have used the term
"reasonable care."
Reasonable care is
defined as the care which an ordinarily prudent or careful
person would use in view of the surrounding circumstances.
You must determine the question by placing an ordinarily
prudent person in the situation of the defendant and ask
yourselves: what would such a person have done?
Note that it is
the care that such a person would have used under the
surrounding circumstances, that is, in view of the facts
known or the facts of which the party should have been aware
at the time. The standard of care required, that of an
ordinarily prudent person under the circumstances, never
varies, but the degree or amount of care may vary with those
circumstances.
For example, in
circumstances of slight risk or danger, a slight amount of
care might be sufficient to constitute reasonable care,
while in circumstances of greater risk or danger, a
correspondingly greater amount of care would be required to
constitute reasonable care.
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