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California Evidence Code Section 669

Legal Research Home > California Laws > Evidence Code > California Evidence Code Section 669

669.  (a) The failure of a person to exercise due care is presumed
if:
   (1) He violated a statute, ordinance, or regulation of a public
entity;
   (2) The violation proximately caused death or injury to person or
property;
   (3) The death or injury resulted from an occurrence of the nature
which the statute, ordinance, or regulation was designed to prevent;
and
   (4) The person suffering the death or the injury to his person or
property was one of the class of persons for whose protection the
statute, ordinance, or regulation was adopted.
   (b) This presumption may be rebutted by proof that:
   (1) The person violating the statute, ordinance, or regulation did
what might reasonably be expected of a person of ordinary prudence,
acting under similar circumstances, who desired to comply with the
law; or
   (2) The person violating the statute, ordinance, or regulation was
a child and exercised the degree of care ordinarily exercised by
persons of his maturity, intelligence, and capacity under similar
circumstances, but the presumption may not be rebutted by such proof
if the violation occurred in the course of an activity normally
engaged in only by adults and requiring adult qualifications.

Last modified: February 22, 2013