Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An adjective describing events, conduct, or persons that conform to the regular or usual course of affairs in a given context.
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Otis Olsen endured a sudden, severe insult from a neighbor during a heated argument over property boundaries. The neighbor's words triggered an immediate violent response from Otis. A court later assessed whether the insult rose to the level that would overwhelm the self-control of a person conforming to the regular course of human reaction.
Odilia Okamura served as purchasing manager for a food distributor and received shipments with ambiguous labels. She possessed industry experience yet performed only a visual check. The principal later claimed she failed to apply the awareness that a person of regular experience and intelligence would have used with due care.
Oliver Okeke directed personally abusive epithets at a passerby on a public sidewalk. The recipient reacted with immediate physical aggression. Prosecutors evaluated whether the words would inherently provoke retaliation from a person conforming to the regular course of citizen behavior.
Outback Mining purchased equipment from a dealer that had granted a security interest to a lender. The purchase occurred during the dealer's normal inventory sales. Outback Mining took the goods free of the security interest even though it knew of the lien's existence.
Oasis Resorts, an LLC, considered selling its primary operating asset to fund expansion. All members had to approve because the transaction fell outside the regular course of the company's activities and affairs.
Omega Energy, a limited partnership, faced a claim after a general partner caused injury while handling routine deliveries. The conduct occurred within the regular course of the partnership's activities, rendering the entity liable for the resulting harm.
The standard measures whether the provocation would cause a person conforming to the regular course of human reaction to experience sudden and intense passion that overwhelms self-control. It supplies the objective component that distinguishes adequate from inadequate provocation.
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An agent must know what a person of regular experience and intelligence would know and must additionally apply any specialized knowledge the agent actually possesses or purports to have when performing duties with due care.
…limited and unlimited government is abolished. Either the Constitution is superior and paramount or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts. If the former, then a legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.…
…that that Act related to "the case where a child is killed by a wilful act at the time when it is being delivered in the ordinary course of nature." Id. , at 691. He concluded that the 1861 Act's use of the word "unlawfully," imported the same meaning expressed by the specific proviso in the 1929 Act, even though…
…a prison sentence of six months. Alabama Code, Tit. 14, § 350. Presumably a person charged with violation of this statute enjoys ordinary criminal-law safeguards such as the requirements of an indictment and of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. These safeguards are not available to the defendant in a civil action. The judgment…
…Leaving the current state of affairs in place would maintain and promote instability and uncertainty. For some couples, even an ordinary drive into a neighboring State to visit family or friends risks causing severe hardship in the event of a spouse’s hospitalization while across state lines. In light of the fact that many…
…at all dependent upon local statutes or local usages of a fixed and permanent operation, as, for example, to the construction of ordinary contracts or other written instruments, and especially to questions of general commercial law, where the state tribunals are called upon to perform the like functions as ourselves, that is,…
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Words are unprotected when they consist of personally abusive epithets that, when addressed to a person conforming to the regular course of citizen behavior, are inherently likely to provoke immediate physical retaliation.
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A buyer in the regular course of business takes goods free of a security interest created by the seller, even if the interest is perfected and the buyer knows of its existence, provided the buyer is not purchasing farm products from a farming operation.
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Members must unanimously approve any act that falls outside the regular course of the company's activities and affairs.
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The partnership is liable when the general partner acts in the regular course of the partnership's activities and affairs or with actual or apparent authority of the partnership.
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