Also known as: ordinary care · reasonable care · due care
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The standard of care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise under the circumstances when performing duties owed to another. It requires attention to facts that ordinary experience and intelligence would reveal plus any additional facts discoverable through the knowledge and intelligence the actor possesses or purports to possess.
Coastal Food appointed Angela as purchasing manager. Angela inspected deliveries from Gold Restaurant but ignored ambiguous species labels despite her experience. Because she failed to investigate further using the knowledge her role required, she did not meet ordinary due care and faces liability for resulting losses.
L leased an office to dentist T and promised to maintain the central heating system. L's janitor allowed hot water to run through the cold pipe. The resulting condition created an unreasonable risk that L could have prevented by exercising ordinary due care in performing the repair obligation, exposing L to liability for harm to T's patient.
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A landowner hired an independent contractor to repair a walkway on commercial property. After the contractor finished, the owner did not inspect the work even though the circumstances required reasonable steps to confirm safety. The owner's failure to exercise ordinary due care left the owner liable for injuries caused by the undetected hazard.
A car manufacturer sold a vehicle with a defective wheel to a dealer who resold it to a consumer. The wheel collapsed and injured a passenger who had no contract with the manufacturer. Because the manufacturer owed ordinary due care to all foreseeable users, the absence of privity did not bar the passenger's negligence claim.
A buyer took possession of perishable produce, then properly rejected it for nonconformity. The buyer left the goods in an unrefrigerated area for several days before notifying the seller of their location. The buyer failed to hold the goods with ordinary due care at the seller's disposition and therefore bears responsibility for the resulting spoilage.
A trustee managed a family trust that held volatile securities. The trustee made no effort to review market conditions or the trust's distribution needs for over a year. The trustee's failure to administer the trust with the ordinary due care of a prudent person considering the trust's purposes exposed the trustee to surcharge for resulting losses.
Ordinary due care is the standard required of compensated agents and trustees. A gratuitous agent need only exercise the care that non-agents would use when performing similar unpaid tasks, which is typically a lower threshold.
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No. A bailee exercising ordinary due care for mutual-benefit bailments is not an insurer and is liable only for losses caused by failure to meet that standard.
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A secured party breaches when it places specialized collateral in an environment that foreseeably damages its value, even if the placement follows the secured party's ordinary warehouse routine.
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It is measured objectively against what a reasonably prudent person would do, while also incorporating any specialized knowledge the actor actually possesses or claims to possess.
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…of warranty against defective parts or workmanship which caused personal injuries would entitle a buyer to damages even if due care were used in the manufacturing process. Because of the great potential for harm if the vehicle was defective, that right is the most important and fundamental one arising from the…