Smith v. Hines’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “negligence is presumed to have occurred when the plaintiff establishes an injury which was proximately caused by an instrumentality solely within the control of the defendant and would not have occurred absent negligence on the part of the defendant.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hedrick v. Hardt · Rogers v. Mercy Health Center, Inc.

2. “''The only expert opinion offered by the surgeon is his own opinion that nerve damage could not have occurred. He insists that because the neurologist is not an orthopedic surgeon, he is not a qualified expert to evaluate any damage that could have occurred during orthopedic surgery. We find this argument unconvincing. - Under this rationale, the surgeon would not qualify as an expert concerning any potential neurological injury because he is not a neurologist."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smith v. Hines

3. “The effect of the res ipsa loquitur eviden-tiary rule is merely to raise a rebuttable inference which allows a plaintiff to take the case to the jury and thus avoid a directed verdict for the defendant. Where the proof is conflicting or subject to different inferences, some of which are in favor of and others against the applicability of res ipsa loquitur, the question must be left to the jury. ~”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Rogers v. Mercy Health Center, Inc.