Question

Principle : A citizen is expected to take reasonable duty of care while driving on the road and not to cause injuries to any person.
Facts : X, the owner of a car, asked his friend Y to drive the car to his office. As the car was near his (X's) office, it hit a pedestrian P on account 'Y's negligent driving and injured him seriously. P sued X for damages.
The standard of care generally used in cases of negligence is the ____________________.

• A. skill and care of a professional person
• B. care taken by an intelligent and prudent man
• C. foresight of a prudent man
• D. skill and foresight of an ordinary person of prudence and competence

Answer 1

The correct option is D skill and foresight of an ordinary person of prudence and competence

• Negligence, in general, is legally defined as “the standard of conduct to which one must conform and is that of a reasonable man under like circumstances".
  
• In tort law, a duty of care is a legal obligation which is imposed on an individual requiring adherence to a standard of reasonable care while performing any acts that could foresee ably harm others. It is the first element that must be established to proceed with an action in negligence. When it is claimed that a person has negligently performed a task involving the exercise of special skills, the test for carelessness is whether the defendant carried out the work as carefully as a reasonably competent person possessing those skills would have. Hence, the standard of care generally used in cases of negligence is the skill and foresight of an ordinary person of prudence and competence.