PJC General Negligence 2024

PJC 31.1

E XEMPLARY D AMAGES

If the gravamen of an offense is the nature of the conduct, the definitions of “know ingly” and “intentionally” might be modified as follows: A person acts knowingly, or with knowledge, with respect to a nature of his conduct or circumstances surrounding his conduct when he is aware of the nature of his conduct or that the circumstances exist. A person acts intentionally, or with intent, with respect to the nature of his conduct when it is his conscious objective or desire to engage in the conduct. Because section 41.008(d) does not indicate whether the definition of “intention ally” or “knowingly” as narrowed in these examples should be used, and civil courts have not spoken on the issue, the Committee has adopted the complete statutory defi nitions of knowingly and intentionally from Tex. Penal Code §6.03(a), (b) for use in the charge. Unborn child. If raised by the evidence, the following definitions may be added: “Death” includes, for an individual who is an unborn child, the failure to be born alive. “Individual” means a human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth. Tex. Penal Code § 1.07(a)(26), (a)(49). “Bodily injury” and “serious bodily injury.” In an appropriate case, submit the following definitions of “bodily injury” and “serious bodily injury,” as provided in Tex. Penal Code § 1.07(a)(8), (a)(46): “Bodily injury” means physical pain, illness, or any impairment of physical condition. “Serious bodily injury” means bodily injury that creates a substan tial risk of death or that causes death, serious permanent disfigure ment, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ. Unanimity. PJC 31.1 does not require a unanimous jury finding of the conduct listed in Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.008(c). Under chapter 41 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, “exemplary damages may be awarded only if the jury was unanimous in regard to finding liability for and the amount of exemplary dam ages.” Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.003(d). This is consistent with Tex. R. Civ. P. 292(b), which requires jury unanimity for awards of exemplary damages—an excep tion to the general rule (stated in rule 292(a)) that the agreement of ten of twelve jurors is required to render a verdict. Section 41.003 specifically provides an instruction on

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