Final answer:
Contributory negligence refers to the responsibility of the plaintiff in causing an incident. If there is evidence of Whitlock's contributory negligence, he may be considered partially responsible. If there is no evidence, the court may engage in comparative negligence calculations to determine the extent of each party's responsibility.
Step-by-step explanation:
In order to determine if Whitlock was contributorily negligent, the court would need to examine the evidence presented. If there is enough evidence to establish that Whitlock's actions directly contributed to the incident or the resulting harm, then he could be considered contributorily negligent. This would mean that Whitlock bears some responsibility for the incident.
However, if there is no evidence of contributory negligence, the court may engage in comparative negligence calculations as a precautionary measure. Comparative negligence allows the court to apportion fault in cases where there might be multiple parties involved and each party's negligence can be evaluated and compared.
By engaging in comparative negligence calculations, the court can determine the extent to which each party contributed to the incident and allocate liability accordingly.