''Brown v. Kendall'', 60 Mass. 292 (1850), was a case credited as one of the first appearances of the

reasonable person In law, a reasonable person, reasonable man, or the man on the Clapham omnibus, is a hypothetical person of legal fiction crafted by the courts and communicated through case law and jury instructions. Strictly according to the fiction, it i ...

standard in United States

tort law A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishab ...

Factual background

Two dogs, belonging to the plaintiff and the defendant, respectively, were fighting and in the process of trying to break up the fight the defendant hit the plaintiff in the eye with a stick. In the trial court, the defendant requested that instructions be given to the jury about

contributory negligence In some common law jurisdictions, contributory negligence is a defense to a tort claim based on negligence. If it is available, the defense completely bars plaintiffs from any recovery if they contribute to their own injury through their own negl ...

and a standard resembling the reasonable person standard, but the judge declined to give the instructions. The jury rendered a verdict for the plaintiff, and the defendant upheld.

Decision

The court reasoned that the defendant should only be liable if he was at fault. Fault should be determined by whether or not the defendant was acting with "ordinary care and prudence," a formulation of the reasonable person standard. The court determined that the lower court should have considered this standard when determining

negligence Negligence (Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate and/or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as ''negligence'' involves harm caused by failing to act as ...

and ordered a new trial.Henderson, J., Pearson, R., Kysar, D., Siliciano, J. ''The Torts Process, Seventh Edition.'' Aspen Publishers, New York, NY, 2007, p. 151-152.

References

{{United States tort case law United States tort case law Negligence case law 1850 in United States case law Massachusetts state case law 1850 in Massachusetts Law articles needing an infobox