Origin Established as an objective common law standard in 1837 by the English Court of Common Pleas in Vaughan v. Menlove.
In law, a reasonable person or reasonable man is a hypothetical person whose character and conduct, under any common set of facts, is decided through reasoning of good practice or policy; it is a legal fiction crafted by the courts and communicated through case law and jury instructions. In circumstances arising from an uncommon set of facts, this person represents a composite of a relevant community's judgment as to how a typical member of that community should behave in situations that might pose a threat of harm to the public. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Origin PeriodEstablished as an objective common law standard in 1837 by the English Court of Common Pleas in Vaughan v. Menlove. 1 Core PrincipleAll members of the community owe a duty to act as a reasonable person would in undertaking or avoiding actions that risk harming others, judged by an objective standard rather than the individual's own subjective belief. 1 Origin Period
Origin Period (category)19th Century (1800-1899) 1 Sources
1. Reasonable person (Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute)
Section on Vaughan v. Menlove (1837)
In 1837, in the famous case of Vaughan v. Menlove, an English court of common pleas firmly established that, in the common law, the reasonable person standard is objective, as opposed to subjective.
Section on the objective duty of care standard
All members of the community owe a duty to act as a reasonable person in undertaking or avoiding actions with the risk to harm others.
View the SourceReasonable person (Wikipedia)
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