Largess v. Tatem’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 district · 57 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 61 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The defendant maintains that Vermont law requires that the care that is to be exercised by a physician in the treatment of a patient must be established by expert-medical testimony and cites several cases supporting this rule of law. This Court finds no argument with that premise. However, for every rule of law, there must be a rational reason. It is obvious that the trier of fact must have sufficient technical and scientific testimony at his disposal provided by expert witnesses to answer a technical and scientific question of fact. But when a physician’s lack of care has been such as to require only common knowledge and experience to understand and judge it, expert medical testimony is not required to establish that care. Under the circumstances of this case, the evidence presented to the trier of fact clearly indicated the failure of the defendant to inquire prior to making a judgment concerning the weight bearing of the plaintiff was a gross violation of the due care owed by a physician to a patient. This violation of that due care being so apparent to be comprehensible to the lay trier of fact, expert medical testimony is not needed to substantiate the violation which is already apparent. (Citations omitted.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Newhall v. Central Vermont Hospital, Inc.