From our private database of 35,400+ case briefs...
Ostrowski v. Cape Transit Corp.
New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division
853 A.2d 985 (2004)
Facts
John Ostrowski (plaintiff) was in a car accident with a driver employed by Cape Transit Corporation (defendant). Cape Transit admitted liability, but a trial was held on the issue of damages. At trial, Cape Transit’s opening statement claimed that Ostrowski was faking the extent of the head injury he sustained in the accident. The opening previewed evidence Cape Transit would introduce to prove this claim. During Cape Transit’s presentation of its case, it introduced medical expert testimony and other evidence to the same effect, including videos of Ostrowski doing things that he claimed he could no longer do because of the head injury. In effect, Cape Transit claimed that Ostrowski had been living a lie since the accident in order to obtain a large judgment. After hearing Cape Transit’s opening statement, the trial court permitted Ostrowski to introduce evidence of his character for truthfulness in his case-in-chief. After the trial court’s ruling on damages, Cape Transit appealed, arguing that Ostrowski should not have been permitted to introduce evidence of his character for truthfulness.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Skillman, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 616,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 35,400 briefs, keyed to 984 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.
