CACI No. 403. Standard of Care for Person with a Physical Disability
Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions (2024 edition)
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403.Standard of Care for Person with a Physical Disability
A person with a physical disability is required to use the amount of care
that a reasonably careful person who has the same physical disability
would use in the same situation.
New September 2003; Revised May 2023
Directions for Use
By “same” disability, this instruction is referring to the effect of the disability, not
the cause.
Sources and Authority
• Liability of Person of “Unsound Mind.” Civil Code section 41.
• “[A] person [whose faculties are impaired] is bound to use that care which a
person of ordinary prudence with faculties so impaired would use in the same
circumstances.” (Conjorsky v. Murray (1955) 135 Cal.App.2d 478, 482 [287 P.2d
505].)
• “The jury was properly instructed that negligence is failure to use ordinary care
and that ordinary care is that care which persons of ordinary prudence exercise
in the management of their own affairs. A person with faculties impaired is held
to the same degree of care and no higher. He is bound to use that care which a
person of ordinary prudence with faculties so impaired would use in the same
circumstances.” (Jones v. Bayley (1942) 49 Cal.App.2d 647, 654 [122 P.2d 293].)
• “We conclude sudden mental illness may not be posed as a defense to harmful
conduct and that the harm caused by such individual’s behavior shall be judged
on the objective reasonable person standard in the context of a negligence action
as expressed in Civil Code section 41.” (Bashi v. Wodarz (1996) 45 Cal.App.4th
1314, 1323 [53 Cal.Rptr.2d 635].)
• Restatement Second of Torts, section 283B, provides: “Unless the actor is a
child, his insanity or other mental deficiency does not relieve the actor from
liability for conduct which does not conform to the standard of a reasonable man
under like circumstances.”
• Restatement Second of Torts, section 283C, provides: “If the actor is ill or
otherwise physically disabled, the standard of conduct to which he must conform
to avoid being negligent is that of a reasonable man under like disability.”
Secondary Sources
California Tort Guide (Cont.Ed.Bar 3d ed.) § 1.21.2
33 California Forms of Pleading and Practice, Ch. 380, Negligence (Matthew
Bender)
241
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