13-1601. Negligence (of all persons); definition.
The term "negligence" may relate either to an act or a failure to act.
An act, to be "negligence", must be one which a reasonably prudent person would foresee as involving an unreasonable risk of injury to [himself] [herself] or to another and which such a person, in the exercise of ordinary care, would not do.
A failure to act, to be "negligence", must be a failure to do an act which one is under a duty to do and which a reasonably prudent person, in the exercise of ordinary care, would do in order to prevent injury to [himself] [herself] or to another.
USE NOTES
This is a basic instruction defining negligence and is to be used when negligence is an issue unless the term is specifically defined in a separate chapter, e.g., medical malpractice.
No separate definition is given of contributory negligence. The negligence of all parties whose negligence is to be compared - plaintiff, defendant, other parties or absent persons - is defined by this single instruction.
[As amended, effective November 1, 1991.]