Peters v. City of Medford

Because plaintiffs were not entitled to rely on res ipsa loquitur, the court’s refusal to instruct the jury was not an error. Further, I am not convinced that, when res ipsa loquitur does apply, the court should ever give a jury instruction on the inference of negligence. Accordingly, I dissent.

Res ipsa loquitur is a rule of circumstantial evidence that allows an inference of negligence to be drawn if the accident is of a kind which ordinarily would not have occurred in the absence of the defendant’s negligence, even though it might be impossible to determine the specific way in which the…