Lasley v. Combined Transport, Inc.

Evidence adduced in the course of a civil trial does not arise in a vacuum. It is circumscribed by the content of the parties’ respective pleadings, a fact that requires litigants in Oregon to plead the ultimate facts on which their claims are based. See ORCP 18 A (pleadings must contain a “plain and concise statement of the ultimate facts constituting a claim for relief’); see also Welch v. Bancorp, 296 Or 208, 221, 675 P2d 172 (1984) (“The necessity of pleading ultimate facts retains the present Oregon requirements of pleading facts at a fairly specific level.”) (internal quotation marks…