Task: songer_direct1

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Your task is to determine the ideological directionality of the court of appeals decision, coded as "liberal" or "conservative". Consider liberal to be for government tax claim; for person claiming patent or copyright infringement; for the plaintiff alleging the injury; for economic underdog if one party is clearly an underdog in comparison to the other, neither party is clearly an economic underdog; in cases pitting an individual against a business, the individual is presumed to be the economic underdog unless there is a clear indication in the opinion to the contrary; for debtor or bankrupt; for government or private party raising claim of violation of antitrust laws, or party opposing merger; for the economic underdog in private conflict over securities; for individual claiming a benefit from government; for government in disputes over government contracts and government seizure of property; for government regulation in government regulation of business; for greater protection of the environment or greater consumer protection (even if anti-government); for the injured party in admiralty - personal injury; for economic underdog in admiralty and miscellaneous economic cases. Consider the directionality to be "mixed" if the directionality of the decision was intermediate to the extremes defined above or if the decision was mixed (e.g., the conviction of defendant in a criminal trial was affirmed on one count but reversed on a second count or if the conviction was afirmed but the sentence was reduced). Consider "not ascertained" if the directionality could not be determined or if the outcome could not be classified according to any conventional outcome standards.

PER CURIAM:
The trial court had before it petitions for exoneration or limitation of liability by Pearson and Heiser, owners of motor boats, pursuant to 46 U.S.C. § 185. On conflicting evidence the court found Pearson and Heiser were each negligent and that the collision leading to this action was proximately caused by the mutual fault of the two owners.
The court also found on conflicting evidence that Pearson’s fault was not a minor one and the court refused to apply the major-minor fault admiralty rule.
We cannot say the district court was clearly wrong in its factual determinations; and if they are valid there are no legal questions presented. We affirm.
We have been invited to view two short motion pictures, one made by a naval architect, an expert witness for Pearson, and the other made by a marine surveyor, an expert witness for Heiser. Each depicts a speed boat run made under generally similar but not identical conditions. Each expert identified his picture and testified at length as to what he claims was depicted and as to his conclusions. Each was cross examined. There was testimony of supporting experts on both sides.
It is conceded that the testimony is in conflict, particularly on the question of the degree of inclination achieved by the Heiser motor boat and the effect of the inclination on the visability of Heiser’s running lights. Testimony on behalf of Pearson was that the degree of inclination received by the Heiser boat was as much as 8.5° from the horizontal, and thus screened Heiser’s running lights. Testimony on behalf of Heiser was that the maximum inclination of Heiser’s lights were not obscured.
Obviously viewing the films would only add to our view of the conflict in the evidence.
The judgment is affirmed.

Question: What is the ideological directionality of the court of appeals decision?
A. conservative
B. liberal
C. mixed
D. not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: D