Topic 5: Breach (The Reasonable Person & Hand Formula)

How is breach established?

Court asks whether you acted as a Reasonably Prudent Person under the circumstances

Once a duty is established, a person must act as a…

Reasonably Prudent Person under the circumstances

What is the Standard of Care?

Reasonable and prudent person under similar circumstances

The reasonable person standard DOESN’T consider…

MOSI:

Mental illness
Old age
Substandard knowledge/judgement/skills
Intoxication

The reasonable person standard DOES consider…

Physical disability or illness
Special knowledge
Emergency
Custom

True or false: Children are held to a Reasonably Prudent Child of the same age, intelligence, and experience under the circumstances.

True

A 10 year old child starts driving a car. What standard is he held to?

Reasonably prudent adult

A child less than years of age is incapable of negligence.

5 years

True or false: Specialized knowledge of a field, such as pilots, lawyers, doctors, etc. are held to a reasonable standard of their respective profession (e.g. a reasonably prudent lawyer).

True

What needs to be established to win a Lawyer Malpractice case?

Need to prove that underlying case would have been won without the attorney’s errors

Ms. A grew up in CA and has never witnessed snow. She traveled to Indiana while it was snowing and crashed while driving. Is she liable? Why?

Yes. Doesn’t matter that she lacked personal experience. The knowledge of an ordinary reasonable person can vary from community to community.

What does B < PL mean?

If burden is less than the probability of harm and the loss severity, Defendant is liable for negligence.

Ford recalled 100,000 Ford Fusions for defective door handles. After an accident, the door handles would freeze and would fail to open. It would cost Ford $5 per unit to fix the door handles.

100 in 100,000 cars experience frozen handles during a crash.

Per incident, $1M in liability occurs.

Calculate BPL.

$500K < 100*$1M =$100·m
Liability is established.