Alaska Civil Pattern Jury Instruction 6.02

Plaintiff claims that [he][she] was harmed because of the defendant’s failure to follow the standard of conduct that governs owners of land. In order to find in favor of the plaintiff on this claim, you must decide that each of the following elements is more likely true than not true:

1. The defendant failed to guard against unreasonable risks created by a dangerous condition on the property.

2. The defendant’s failure constituted gross negligence, reckless misconduct, or intentional misconduct. This element is not established if the defendant engaged in conduct that constituted only ordinary negligence. In a moment, I will explain each of these terms.

3. The plaintiff was harmed; and

4. The defendant’s failure was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff’s harm.

Ordinary negligence is the failure to use reasonable care, which is the amount of care that a reasonably careful person would use in the same situation.

Gross negligence is an extreme departure from the amount of care that a reasonably careful person would use in the same situation. Gross negligence means more than ordinary inadvertence or inattention.

Reckless misconduct occurs when a person consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk. Disregard of this risk must be a gross deviation from the way that a reasonable person would act.

Intentional misconduct is when a person acts, or fails to act, with the purpose of harming another person, or knowing that [his] [her] act or failure to act was substantially certain to harm that person.