Farmers Insurance v. Smith

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• finding electrical engineer qualified to testify regarding cause of fire in mobile home
• reversing the exclusion of expert testimony because “[b]y [the expert’s] elimination of other possible causes for the fire it would appear that his conclusion was reasonable that the fire was the result of some defect in the mobile home’s electrical system”
• In law, permissible presumptions or inferences “must have substantial probative force as distinguished from surmise.”
• it is proper to use expert testimony to prove the cause of a fire provided the expert’s opinion is based upon adequate facts
• investigator's opinion that fire was caused by a defective loose connection should have been admitted despite his inability to physically find the connection where he formed this opinion by process of elimination
• investigator’s opinion that fire was caused by a defective loose connection should have been admitted despite his inability to physically find the connection where he formed this opinion by process of elimination

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).