Hornady Transportation, LLC v. Fluellen

I respectfully dissent because I do not believe that the dependents satisfied their burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, see Aa.Code 1975, § 25-5-81(c), that the cause of Charles Fluellen’s death was “thermal injuries due to a motor-vehicle incident with fire.”

Hornady Transportation, LLC, objected to the admission of Dr. Samuel Simmons’s cause-of-death opinion (and the two official documents derived from that opinion) on two grounds: that they were based on hearsay statements in the EMS report and that they were inconsistent with the undisputed facts of the case. The trial…