Opinion

Byrd v. State ex rel. Department of Public Safety & Corrections

  • 637 So. 2d 114
  • 1994 La. LEXIS 1247
Court
Supreme Court of Louisiana
Filed
May 23, 1994
Status
Published
Author
Iqrtique
On the bench
Believing, Hmarvin, Hoe, Iqrtique, Ortique, Reasons, Trial, Watson, Wrong
Cited by
5 cases
Authority
More cited than 0.4%

The opinion

| iQRTIQUE, Justice,

dissenting.

I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion as in my view, the trial court was not clearly wrong in rendering judgment in favor of plaintiff. A careful review of the record in this case reveals that the testimony of each of the medical experts who testified was fraught with inconsistencies as their trial testimony often conflicted with their deposition testimony and their direct testimony conflicted with their testimony on cross examination. The trial court having heard conflicting testimony, which at times was internally inconsistent, made a credibility determination to accept portions of the testimony of the various expert witnesses and reject other portions of the testimony of those same witnesses. As a result, the trial court correctly concluded that the plaintiff met his burden of proof and rendered judgment accordingly.

The jurisprudence recognizing the fundamental right, duty and privilege of the trial court to evaluate inconsistent testimony is so voluminous that citation is unnecessary. This same jurisprudence unhesitatingly opines that the trial court is in a superior position to discern the oughtness of the testimony.

We have consistently held that where there is conflicting testimony, reasonable evaluations of credibility and reasonable inferences of fact should not be disturbed upon review. |2In this case, several permissible views of the evidence were presented, therefore, the fact finder’s choice among them cannot be clearly wrong nor manifestly erroneous. Rosell v. ESCO, 549 So.2d 840 (La. 1989).

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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