Young v. Thota’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Here, however, the jury was not only given an erroneous defensive instruction on new and independent cause that ben-efitted only Dr. Thota but also an erroneous jury question on liability — Ronnie’s contributory negligence — a theory not supported by the evidence. So, we should not be limited to Urista’s traditional harm analysis when trying to determine the impact of the improperly submitted instruction on new and independent cause when combined with the improperly submitted question of Ronnie’s contributory negligence. We simply cannot determine, on this evidence, whether the jury properly found Dr. Thota not negligent, properly found that his negligence was excused based upon the unavoidable accident instruction, or improperly found that his negligence was excused based upon the new and independent cause instruction alone or combined with its improper finding of Ronnie’s negligence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Thota v. Young

2. “It is the combination of these two incorrect theories that prevents us from being able to determine whether the jury’s finding of no liability as to Dr. Thota was a finding of no negligence on his part, an erroneous finding of contributory negligence on Ronnie’s part, or an erroneous finding of new and independent cause. Importantly, we are not trying to extend Casteel’s presumed harm analysis to defensive theories; we are applying it to a single broad-form question that erroneously includes two different theories of liability. This error is only exacerbated by the erroneous defensive instruction of new and independent cause.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Thota v. Young

3. “is an event not proximately caused by the negligence of any party to it.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Chesser v. LIFECARE MANAGEMENT SERVICES