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230 Neb. 782

433 N.W.2d 523

Sanchez v. Derby

Nebraska Supreme Court

Decided January 6, 1989

Nebraska Supreme Court · decided 1989-01-06

Relies on Sanchez v. Derby

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1989-01-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently January 2012

16 state decisions

1001989199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Fahrnbruch, J.,

¶1dissenting.

¶2I must respectfully dissent from the majority opinion on rehearing. As pointed out in the original majority opinion and in my concurrence in Sanchez v. Derby, 228 Neb. 497, 423 N.W.2d 420 (1988), Dr. Golden was prepared to testify

The most probable causes [sic] of [the plaintiff’s] behavioral change is either (1) a combination of a post traumatic stress disorder and a reaction to chronic pain in a previously marginal personality or (2) an organic affective disorder secondary to mild subcortical brain injury (around the orbital frontal areas) which can occur in accidents

¶3such as that in whi< the plaintiff was involved. (Emphasis supplied.)

¶4Dr. Golden’s testimony would have also been

While it is possible at this time to state firmly that one of these causes is indeed the most probable cause of her [plaintiff’s] problems as the problems clearly date from *786the time of the accident as well as follow the pattern expected in such disorders, it is not possible to choose between them at present.

¶5Under Dr. Golden’s second “probable cause” of plaintiff’s problems (mild subcortical brain injury), he only theorizes that the brain injury can occur in accidents, not that there was a reasonable degree of certainty that it did occur in the accident in which the plaintiff was involved.

¶6The trial court was correct in finding that to allow Dr. Golden’s opinion testimony with respect to the cause of Sanchez’ behavioral change would be to invite a jury to speculate on the proximate cause of Sanchez’ behavioral problems.

¶7The ruling of the trial court should be affirmed.

Boslaugh and Caporale, JJ., join in this dissent.
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