Can a jury infer negligence from the happening of the accident alone?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Newing v. Cheatham, 117 Cal.Rptr. 30, 42 Cal.App.3d 593 (Cal. App. 1974):

Rather than weighing the evidence and making such determinations himself, the trial judge should have instructed the jury if it found from the expert testimony, common knowledge and all the circumstances shown by the evidence that the accident was more probably than not the result of the pilot's negligence, it could infer negligence from the happening of the accident alone. (See Bardessono v. Michaels, 3 Cal.3d 780, 793, 91 Cal.Rptr. 760, 478 P.2d 480; BAJI Instruction Nos. 4.0 and 4.02.)

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