Payson v. Bombardier, Ltd.
Maine Supreme Judicial Court
435 A.2d 411 (1981)
Facts
Grevis Payson was killed by Barbara Billings’s snowmobile when she lost control of it. Payson’s family (plaintiff) sued Bombardier, Ltd. (defendant), the manufacturer of the snowmobile. Payson argued that Billings lost control because the snowmobile’s handlebars had broken and that the handlebars were negligently designed so as not to be able to withstand sufficient stress. At trial, Bombardier called Price as a witness. Price was in charge of compiling Bombardier’s product-information reports. Price testified that no Bombardier dealer or distributor had reported handlebar failure on a snowmobile of the kind Billings had. Price testified that Bombardier had used the handlebar design on more than 800,000 snowmobiles. The jury found in favor of Bombardier. Payson appealed, arguing that Price’s testimony was based on hearsay.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (McKusick, C.J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 710,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 44,600 briefs, keyed to 983 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.
