The failure to exercise reasonable or prudent care that an ordinary person would make under the same circumstances. To prove negligence, the following elements are required: (i) the defendant owed a duty to the injured party or to the general public (such as driving a car), (ii) the actions or failure to act by the defendant was not representative of reasonable or prudent conduct that an ordinary person would make under similar circumstances, and (iii) that the defendant’s negligent act or inaction was the proximate cause of the injury suffered by the plaintiff.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
It is conceded by all the authorities that the standard by which to determine whether a person has been guilty of negligence is the conduct of the prudent or careful or diligent man. Bigelow, Torts, 261.
The failure to observe, for the protection of the interests of another person, that degree ot care, precaution, and vigilance, which the circumstances justly demand, whereby such other person suffers injury. Cooley, Torts, 630. The failure to do what a reasonable and prudent person would ordinarily have done under the circumstances of the situation, or the doing what such a person under the existing circumstances would’ not have done. Baltimore & P. R. Co. v. Jones, 05 U. S. 441, 24 L. Ed. 506. The opposite of care and prudence; the omission to use the means reasonably necessary to avoid injury to others. Great Western R. Co. v. Haworth, 39 111. 353. Negligence or carelessness signifies want of care, caution, attention, diligence, or discretion in one having no positive intention to injure the person complaining thereof. The words ”reckless,” “indifferent,” 4fcareiess,” and “wanton” are never understood to signify positive will or intention, unless when joined with other words which show that they are to receive an artificial or unusual, if not an unnatural, interpretation. Lexington v. Lewis, 10 Bush (Ky.) 677. Negligence is any culpable omission of a positive duty. It differs from heedlessness, in that heedlessness is the doing of an act in violation of a negative duty, without adverting to its possible consequences. In both cases there is inadvertence, and there is breach of duty. Aust. Jur.