Main Content
Bethel v. New York City Transit Authority
Absent some special standard of care, defendants must meet the standard of care applied to an ordinary, reasonable person. But who is the reasonable person? How do we determine what constitutes reasonable conduct in a particular community or time? Whatever else one may think, the reasonable-person standard is ambiguous and generates unpredictable results. Why do courts apply it? The next case offers one answer to this question.
This book, and all H2O books, are Creative Commons licensed for sharing and re-use with the exception of certain excerpts. Any excerpts from the Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, and the Model Penal Code are copyright by The American Law Institute. Excerpts are reproduced with permission, not as part of a Creative Commons license.