Szalontai v. Yazbo's Sports Café

This appeal requires that we again examine the boundaries that delimit the application of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, this time within the confines of the discovery deadlines that are part of our “best practices” requirements. We reaffirm that, before the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur operates to shift the burden of persuasion to the defendant in a negligence case, the plaintiff first must meet all of the elements of the three-part res ipsa loquitur test, and that a plaintiffs failure to prove any one of those elements by a preponderance of the evidence renders the doctrine *390and its…