Also known as: reasonably prudent · ordinary prudence · reasonable care
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The objective standard of conduct that a hypothetical person of ordinary intelligence and foresight would exercise under the same circumstances.
Renata Russo contracted to purchase land from Riverfront Developments. A recorded easement appeared in the chain of title that the seller could not remove before closing. Russo refused to close because a reasonably prudent purchaser with full knowledge of the facts would have viewed the encumbrance as creating reasonable doubt about marketability.
Riley Rivera leased an office from Redline Automotive's building subsidiary. The landlord promised in the lease to maintain the central heating plant yet failed to fix a leak that sent scalding water through the cold-water line. A patient of Rivera's dental practice suffered burns, triggering landlord liability for failing to exercise reasonable care in performing the repair promise.
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Roland Rhodes installed a spring-loaded shotgun inside a remote storage shed to deter trespassers. He took no steps to post signs or otherwise alert probable intruders to the device's presence. When a neighbor's child entered the shed and was injured, Rhodes's failure to exercise reasonable care in making the device's use known exposed him to liability.
Rita Russell, a police officer, received a reliable tip that Ravi Reddy had just sold stolen electronics from the back of his van. She located the van, observed the goods matching the description, and arrested Reddy. The facts and circumstances known to Russell at the time of arrest were sufficient to warrant a reasonably prudent person in believing that Reddy had committed the crime.
Rising Sun Electronics received a shipment of circuit boards that failed inspection. After seasonably rejecting the goods, the company retained physical possession but stored the boards in a climate-controlled area and notified the seller of their availability for pickup. The buyer thereby satisfied its duty to hold the goods with reasonable care at the seller's disposition.
Rachel Ramirez, trustee of a family trust, reviewed the trust's purposes and distributional needs before rebalancing the investment portfolio. She consulted current market data, considered the beneficiaries' respective interests, and documented her decision process. Ramirez thereby administered the trust as a prudent person would by exercising reasonable care, skill, and caution.
The reasonable prudence standard is objective and measures conduct against what a hypothetical person of ordinary intelligence and foresight would do. A subjective good-faith test looks only to the actor's honest belief. Courts apply the objective standard in negligence, title, and trust contexts even when the actor subjectively believed the conduct was appropriate.
Yes. After rejection the buyer must hold the goods with reasonable care at the seller's disposition for a time sufficient to permit removal. Failure to exercise that care exposes the buyer to liability for resulting damage even though title has not passed.
Liability arises when the landlord has contracted to keep the property in repair, the disrepair creates an unreasonable risk that performance of the promise would have prevented, and the landlord fails to exercise reasonable care in performing the contract. The standard is measured by what a reasonably prudent landlord would have done.
Probable cause exists when the officer possesses reasonably trustworthy facts and circumstances that would warrant a reasonably prudent person in believing that the suspect has committed or is committing a crime. The test is objective and evaluated at the moment of arrest.
…those discussed above if a State purported to condition civil liability on a factual misstatement whose content did not warn a reasonably prudent editor or broadcaster of its defamatory potential. Cf. Time, Inc. v. Hill , 385 U. S. 374 (1967). Such a case is not now before us, and we intimate no view as to its proper…