Students of California School for the Blind v. Honig
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
736 F.2d 538 (1984)

- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
The State of California (defendant) planned to open a school in Fremont. Students of California School for the Blind (the students) (plaintiff) sued the state, alleging that the site was seismically unsafe. The trial judge was unable to determine the merits of the case based on the trial record. As a result, the judge reopened the case sua sponte and appointed a neutral expert witness. Both parties were permitted to cross-examine the expert. After hearing the expert’s testimony, the court granted the students a preliminary injunction, pending additional seismic tests. The state appealed, arguing that the appointment of the expert was improper and that the expert was unqualified.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Pregerson, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 816,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 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.