Prepared by: Nurjean I. Chaneco, St.

the failure to provide the care of a reasonable person would ordinarily provide in a similar situation

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF NEGLIGENCE

Failure to report observations to attending physicians. Failure to exercise the degree of diligence which the circumstances of the particular case demands. Mistaken Identity Wrong medicine, wrong concentration, wrong route, wrong dose. Defects in the equipment such as stretchers and wheelchairs may lead to falls thus injuring the patients. Errors due to family assistance. Administration of medicine without a doctors prescription.

Justifying Circumstances
A person may not incur criminal liability under the following circumstances: when he/she acts in defense of his/her person or rights provided thatthere is an unlawful aggression on the part of the offended or injured party. There is reasonable necessity for the means employed by the person defending himself/herself to prevent such aggression There is lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person defending himself.

1.2 when he/she acts in defense of the person or the rights of his/her spouse, ascendants, descendants, or legitimate or natural or adopted brothers or sisters, or relatives by affinity in the same degrees and those by consanguity within the fourth civil degree, provided that the first and second requisites prescribed in the next preceding circumstance are present, and further requisite, in the case of provocation was given by the person attacked, that the one making defense had no part therein.
1.3 when he/she acts in defense of the person or rights of a stranger provided that the first and second requisites mentioned in the first circumstance and that the person defending is not induced by revenge, resentment or other evil motives. 1.4 when any person who, in order to avoid an evil or injury, does an act which causes damage to another provided that the evil sought to be avoided actually exists, the injury feared is greater than that done to avoid it and there is no other practical and less harmful means to prevent it. 1.5 when he/she acts in the fulfillment of the duty or in lawful exercise of a right or office.

There are certain circumstances under which the law exempts a person from criminal liability for the commission of a crime. The following persons under the circumstances stated are expressly exempted by law from criminal liability for the crime they may have committed:

An imbecile or an insane person, unless ther latter has acted during a lucid interval; A person under 9 years of age; A person over nine years of age and under fifteen unless he/she acted with discernment; Any person who, while performing a lawful act with due care, causes an injury which is merely an accident without fault or intention of causing it; Any person who acts under the compulsion of an irresistible force Any person who acts under the impulse of an uncontrollable fear of an equal of greater injury; and; Any person who fails to perform an act required by the law, when prevented by some lawful or insuperable cause.

Those which do not constitute justification or excuse of the offense in question, but which, in fairness and mercy, may be considered as extenuating or reducing the degree of moral culpability. Following are some of the circumstances considered by the law to be mitigating and, as such, lessened the criminal liability of the offenders.

Circumstances which are otherwise justifying or exempting were it not for the fact that all requisites necessary to justify the act of to exempt the offender from criminal liability in the respective cases are not attendant.
When the offender has no intention to commit so grave a wrong as the one committed. When the offender is under 18 years of age or over 70 years old. When sufficient provocation or threat in the part of the offended party immediately precedes the act.

When the act is committed in the immediate vindication of a grave offense to the one committing the felony, his/her spouse, ascendants, descendants, legitimate, natural or adopted brothers or sisters, or relative by affinity within the same degree.
When a person acts upon an impulse so powerful as naturally to have produced an obfuscation.

When the offender voluntarily surrenders himself to a person in authority or his agents, or that he/she voluntarily confesses his/her guilt before the court prior to the presentation of evidence for the prosecution.

When the defender is deaf and dumb, blind or otherwise suffering from some physical defect which thus restricts his/her means of action, defense which thus restricts his/her means of action, defense or communication with his/her fellow beings.
When the offender is suffering from such illness as would diminish the exercise of his/her willpower without, however depriving him/her consciousness of his/her acts.

Are those attending the commission of a crime or make his guilt more severe. Some of he circumstances considered by law as aggravating the guilt of the offender are the following: When an offender takes advantage of his public position; When the crime is committed in contempt of or with insult to public authorities;

When the act is committed with insult or in disregard of the respect of the offended party on account of his/her rank, sex, or age that is committed in the dwelling of the offended party, if the latter has not given provocation;

When the act is committed with abuse or confidence or obvious ungratefulness; When the crime is committed in a place of worship;

When the crime is committed on the occasion of a conflagration, shipwreck, earthquake, epidemic or other calamity or misfortune
When the crime is committed in consideration of a price, reward or promise When the crime is committed by means of inundation, fire, poision, explosion, standings of a vessel or intentional damage thereto, derailment of a locomotive, or the use of any other artifice involving great waste and ruin;

When the act is committed with evident premeditation of after an unlawful entry; When craft, fraud or disguise is employed; and
When the wrong done in the commission of the crime is deliberately augmented by causing other wrings not necessary for its commission.

Are those which must be taken into consideration as aggravating of mitigating according to the nature and effects of the crime and other conditions attending its commission. These are the relationship, intoxication and degree of instruction and education of the offender.

The alternative circumstance of relationship shall be taken into consideration when the offended party is the spouse, ascendant or descendant, legitimate, natural, or adopted brother or sister, or relative by affinity in the same degree of the offender.

Relationship is aggravating in physical injuries inflicted by a descendant upon an ascendant. it is mitigating when an accused aided his/her brother in the fight against the offended party. Relationship is inherent in parricide or infanticide.

The intoxication of the offender shall be taken into consideration as a mitigating circumstance when the offender has committed a felony in a state of intoxication, if the same is not habitual or subsequent plan to commit said felony. When the intoxication is habitual or intentional, it shall be considered as an aggravating circumstance.

Illiteracy itself is insufficient to be considered mitigating. There must be lack of sufficient intelligence and knowledge of the full significance of ones act.

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