Smith v. Lefebre’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It is axiomatic that [t]he amount of damages awarded is a matter peculiarly within the province of the jury .... Moreover, there is no obligation for the jury to find that every injury causes pain, or the amount of pain alleged.... Put another way, [i]t is the jury's right to accept some, none or all of the evidence presented.... It is the [jury's] exclusive province to weigh the conflicting evidence and to determine the credibility of witnesses.... The [jury] can ... decide what-all, none, or some-of a witness' testimony to accept or reject.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 181 Conn. App. 671 - Micalizzi v. Stewart · 178 Conn. App. 605 - Cusano v. Lajoie

2. “Because in setting aside a verdict the court has deprived a litigant in whose favor the verdict has been rendered of his constitutional right to have disputed issues of fact determined by a jury ... the court's action cannot be reviewed in a vacuum. The evidential underpinnings of the verdict itself must be examined. Upon issues regarding which, on the evidence, there is room for reasonable difference of opinion among fair-minded men, the conclusion of a jury, if one at which honest men acting fairly and intelligently might arrive reasonably, must stand ....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 178 Conn. App. 605 - Cusano v. Lajoie

3. “The only practical test to apply to a verdict is whether the award of damages falls somewhere within the necessarily uncertain limits of fair and reasonable compensation in the particular case, or whether the verdict so shocks the sense of justice as to compel the conclusion that the jury [was] influenced by partiality, mistake or corruption.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 178 Conn. App. 605 - Cusano v. Lajoie