Gorby v. Schneider Tank Lines, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
741 F.2d 1015 (7th Cir. 1984)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Dennis Gorby was driving on a road when his pickup truck was hit by a semi-tanker truck driven by David Welsch and owned by Schneider Tank Lines, Inc. (Schneider) (defendant). Dennis was severely injured. Edith Gorby (plaintiff), Dennis’s wife, brought suit against Schneider. At trial, Edith called Carl Highlan as a witness. Highlan had been traveling in the opposite direction on the road and had seen the accident. There was no evidence that Highlan had ever driven a semi-tanker or pickup truck. There was also no evidence that Highlan was familiar with either type of vehicle’s safety features or acceleration and stopping times. On cross-examination, Schneider asked for Highlan’s opinion on two issues: (1) whether Welsch did everything he could to avoid the accident, and (2) whether Dennis could have avoided the accident. The district court excluded Schneider’s questions and Highlan’s responses. The jury found in favor of Edith. Schneider appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Pell, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 789,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,200 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.