Cite as: 528 U. S. 440 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
Christine A. Hogan argued the cause for respondents. With her on the brief was James S. Hill.*
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case concerns the respective authority of federal trial and appellate courts to decide whether, as a matter of law, judgment should be entered in favor of a verdict loser. The pattern we confront is this. Plaintiff in a product liability action gains a jury verdict. Defendant urges, unsuccessfully before the federal district court but successfully on appeal, that expert testimony plaintiff introduced was unreliable, and therefore inadmissible, under the analysis required by Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U. S. 579 (1993). Shorn of the erroneously admitted expert testimony, the record evidence is insufficient to justify a plaintiff's verdict. May the court of appeals then instruct the entry of judgment as a matter of law for defendant, or must that tribunal remand the case, leaving to the district court's discretion the choice between final judgment for defendant or a new trial of plaintiff's case?
Our decision is guided by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50, which governs the entry of judgment as a matter of law, and by the Court's pathmarking opinion in Neely v. Martin K. Eby Constr. Co., 386 U. S. 317 (1967). As Neely teaches, courts of appeals should "be constantly alert" to "the trial judge's first-hand knowledge of witnesses, testimony, and issues"; in other words, appellate courts should give due consideration to the first-instance decisionmaker's " 'feel' for the overall case." Id., at 325. But the court of appeals has authority to render the final decision. If, in the particular
*Jeffrey Robert White filed a brief for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America as amicus curiae urging reversal.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for Brunswick Corp. by Stephen M. Shapiro, Timothy S. Bishop, and Jeffrey W. Sarles; and for the Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc., by Michael T. Wharton.
443
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007