Joel Reyes v. Missouri Pacific Railroad Company

How courts have described this case

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

• reviewing Fed. R. Evid. 103 and concluding plaintiff does not waive or invite error by introducing evidence after trial court has overruled an evidentiary objection on that evidence
• refraining from identifying the “precise quantum of proof necessary to” transform a general disposition into a habit, the Fifth Circuit ruled four prior convictions for public intoxication in three and one-half years were too irregular to constitute admissible habit evidence
• defendant's four prior misdemeanor convictions for public intoxication in three-and-one-half year period were of insufficient regularity to constitute habit evidence
• “This general rule of exclusion [in Rule 404], applicable to both civil and criminal proceedings, is based upon the assumption that such evidence is of slight probative value yet very prejudicial.”
• four convictions for public intoxication in three and one-half years insufficient to prove habit
• evidence of appellant’s prior misdemeanor convictions for public intoxication for the purpose of showing that he had a character trait of drinking to excess and that he acted in conformity with his character on the night in question, was impermissible under Rule 404

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).