Legal Question in Personal Injury in Maryland

Re: contributory negligence

According to Faith v. Keefer, 127 Md. App. 706, 736 A.2d 422 (1999): In Maryland, "Contributory negligence connotes a failure to observe ordinary care for one's own safety. `It is the doing of something that a person of ordinary prudence would not do, or the failure to do something that a person of ordinary prudence would do, under the circumstances.'" Smith v. Warbasse, 71 Md. App. 625, 627 (1987)(quoting Menish v. Polinger Co., 227 Md. 553, 559 (1976); see Cigna Property and Cas. Cos. v. Zeitler, 126 Md. App. 444, 488 (1999). Contributory negligence "`occurs whenever the injured person acts or fails to act in a manner consistent with the knowledge or appreciation, actual or implied, of the danger or injury that his or her conduct involves.'" Campbell v. Montgomery County Bd. of Educ., 73 Md. App. 54, 64 (1987)(quoting Gilbert, Maryland Tort Law Handbook, � 11.4.1), cert. denied, 311 Md. 719 (1988); see also County Comm'ns v. Bell Atlantic-Maryland, Inc., 346 Md. 160, 180 (1997); Wegad v. Howard Street Jewelers, 326 Md. 409, 418 (1992).