Reverse Case Law

Question 1

The elements of negligence include
i) the existence of a legal duty owed by the defendant to the plaintiff
ii) the defendant’s breach of that duty
iii) harm suffered by the plaintiff
iv) proof that the defendant’s breach was the direct and proximate cause of the harm

Answer 1

Bardhi v. Kroll

Question 2

i) In a wrongful death case both the deceased and the surviving spouse are considered “parties” for all evidentiary purposes
ii) It is not relevant - and may often be overly prejudicial - that a surviving spouse suffered emotional distress, loss of financial support or loss of companionship

Answer 2

Davis v. HappyLand Toy Co

Question 3

Expert witnesses may rely on inadmissible facts and data, including reviewing reports from the NTSB, when coming to conclusions related to aviation incidents (although the NTSB report is barred from evidence)

Answer 3

Grant v. Janmohamed

Question 4

An expert witness cannot use or refer to the opinions or conclusions made by the NTSB. Further, including these conclusions to match with the witness’ own to bolster testimony is not permitted.

Answer 4

Pippin v. Big Cat Air, LLC

Question 5

“Persons” and “business” are construed equally, and thus they cannot use prior practices during different situations to defend themselves, and plaintiff cannot use prior bad practices to prove current bad practices.

Answer 5

Coburn Camera Crew v. Elliot City

Question 6

A corporation is generally charged with knowledge of any facts learned by its agents within the scope of their employment. This rule applies regardless of whether the agent did, in fact, communicate the information to others.

Answer 6

Vir v. Londo Manufacturing Co

Question 7

Independent contractors (and their employees) are not attributable to a corporate entity who employed the contractor.

Answer 7

Brotherhood, LLC v. Mede

Question 8

Pursuant to Respondeat superior, a corporation is legally responsible and liable for all acts of its employees and agents that occur within the scope of their employment

Answer 8

Lawan v. Sachs Thompson, LLC

Question 9

In assessing reliability under 702(c), judges should consider whether the theory or technique has been or can be tested, whether it has been subjected to peer review and publication, whether it has a known error rate, and whether it has gained widespread acceptance within the field. While relevant, not necessarily dispositive.
Judges must make assessments based on the totality of the circumstances

Answer 9

Tarot Readers Association of Midlands v. Merrell Dowe

Question 10

703 does not permit experts to testify or present a chart in a manner that simply summarizes inadmissible hearsay without first relating that hearsay to some specialized knowledge. Statements that would otherwise be admissible are not inadmissible simply because they are offered by or through an expert witness

Answer 10

Richards v. Mississippi BBQ

Question 11

Does not permit parties to use their experts as weapons in a trial by ambush or unfair surprise :
i) Experts must contain a complete statement of all opinions the expert will testify to and the basis sand reasons for them, etc
ii) They are strictly prohibited from testifying about any opinions or conclusions not stated in their report

Answer 11

Kane Software Co. v. Mars Investigations

Question 12

Pursuant to 801(d)(2)(D), a statement that would otherwise be hearsay is admissible against a
party if:
i) the declarant is the party’s agent or employee
ii) the statement concerns a matter that is
within the scope of the agency or employment relationship
iii) the statement was made while the
agency or employment relationship existed.

Answer 12

Kaplan v. Sikora

Question 13

Witnesses may not provide legal conclusions or legal interpretations

Answer 13

Diamond Design Productions v. Fountain

Question 14

No need for experts to include every underlying fact in their conclusions or opinions, and experts should not be expected to include in their reports every underlying fact from a specific document so long as the experts explicitly disclosed that they relied upon that document in forming their opinions and that document was made available to the other party through discovery

Answer 14

Aggarwal v. Somani

Question 15

801 (d)(2) can only be invoked in one direction.

Answer 15

Dolly v. Ringo

Question 16

Authentication of statement must occur by preponderance of evidence to convince jury

Answer 16

Filteau v. Wanek

Question 17

The purpose of threshold-liability phase is to establish only the existence, rather than the extent, of the defendant’s liability&raquo_space; 401/403 objection

Answer 17

Karan v. Baboons Inc

Question 18

When considering the admissibility of evidence, the court is permitted to rely on both admissible and inadmissible evidence.

Answer 18

Zomerfeld v. Noto

Question 19

Intervening and superseding causation doctrine absolves defendant from liability when the act:
i) was sufficient enough to cause the plaintiff’s harm
ii) was not reasonably foreseeable to the defendant
iii) was not itself a direct result of the defendant’s wrongful conduct

Answer 19

Murray v. Harney

Question 20

Statements which by their existence
impose legal responsibilities, and grant legal rights, upon the parties thereto, are verbal acts and are admissible as non-hearsay

Answer 20

Simpson v. Rose

Question 21

When a defendant attempts to allege a defense of assumption of risk in a wrongful death case brought
by the spouse of a decedent, the fact that a plaintiff-spouse understood and appreciated the risks
associated with the defendant’s conduct cannot exonerate the defendant

Answer 21

O’Neil v. Margit

Question 22

The decedent must appreciate and accept the risk at a time when the decedent can choose whether to assume the risk

Answer 22

Sage v. Pontiff

Question 23

A decedent with pilot training may be capable of appreciating such a risk, even if the decedent is not capable of legally flying the aircraft at issue

Answer 23

Vendrick v. Alonne