VA · jury_instructions
Va. Model Jury Instr. Civ. No. 32.040
Municipality’s Duty: Repair or Warn Upon Notice of Defect
A city has a duty to use ordinary care to [repair; warn of] a defect [in; on] a [street; sidewalk;
bridge] within a reasonable time after it has notice of the defect. The notice may be either actual
or constructive.
A city has actual notice if any city employee who supervises the [streets; sidewalks; bridges] or
who has power to direct work on them actually knew of the defect [in; on] a [street; sidewalk;
bridge].
A city has constructive notice if the defect [in; on] a [street; sidewalk; bridge] existed long
enough that a city would have discovered it if it had used ordinary care.
If a city has notice of a defect [in; on] a [street; sidewalk; bridge], either actual or constructive,
and fails to perform this duty, then it is negligent.
History
Virginia Model Jury Instructions – Civil, Release 26, April 2026. The unannotated set, posted by the Supreme Court of Virginia at vacourts.gov; the book states that it is made available with the permission of the publisher, Matthew Bender & Company, Inc.
Provenance
- Source
- vacourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-11
- Edition
- civ-2026-04-01
- Content hash
aa6fa7ff25c296ac989aba0d5d7e5ae4d92a6b45c2e63e5fec0947ca57a71850
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