## Facts

- Ronald J. Dakter’s car collided with a 65-foot semi tractor-trailer driven by Dale L. Cavallino at a rural Wisconsin intersection.
- Cavallino was a long-time commercial driver operating under a Wisconsin commercial driver’s license (CDL).
- After a 10-day jury trial, the jury found Cavallino 65% causally negligent and Dakter 35% causally negligent.
- The jury awarded damages of $1,097,955.86 to Ronald Dakter and $63,366 to Kathleen M. Dakter.
- Over Cavallino’s objection, the circuit court gave a negligence instruction stating that, as a professional semi-truck driver, Cavallino had a duty to use the care, skill, and judgment of a reasonable semi-truck driver in similar circumstances, “having due regard” for the learning, education, experience, and knowledge of CDL-holding semi-truck drivers.
- Cavallino moved post-verdict for relief, arguing the instruction imposed an improper heightened standard of care; the circuit court denied the motion.
- The court of appeals affirmed, concluding any possible instructional error was not prejudicial.
- The Wisconsin Supreme Court granted review.

## Issues

1. Whether a jury instruction describing a CDL semi-truck driver’s duty as the care of a reasonable semi-truck driver with the learning, education, experience, and knowledge of CDL holders erroneously imposed a heightened standard of care, requiring a new trial.

## Decision

- The Wisconsin Supreme Court affirmed the judgment.
- The Court held the challenged truck-driver negligence instruction was not erroneous and was not misleading.
- Because the instruction correctly stated the governing negligence standard, Cavallino was not entitled to a new trial.

## Legal Principles

- Ordinary care in negligence is evaluated in light of the circumstances; those circumstances may include an actor’s specialized training, experience, and licensing when relevant to the activity undertaken.
- Under the superior-knowledge principle, an actor who possesses greater-than-ordinary knowledge or skill must exercise care consistent with that knowledge or skill.
- Under the profession-or-trade principle, one who undertakes an activity as an occupation may be judged by the conduct of a reasonable practitioner in that occupation performing the same activity.
- A jury instruction may refer to profession-specific knowledge and skill without creating a heightened duty, so long as it frames the inquiry as ordinary care applied to the relevant class of reasonable actors in similar circumstances.

## Conclusion

The court held that instructing the jury to measure a professional CDL semi-truck driver’s conduct against what a reasonable semi-truck driver would do—considering the training and knowledge associated with that license—properly applies ordinary care to the circumstances and does not impose an unlawful heightened standard.


Dakter v. Cavallino, 2015 WI 67, 363 Wis. 2d 738, 866 N.W.2d 656 (Wis. 2015)