Opinion ID: 410990
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Federal or state standard

Text: 8 The magistrate ruled that Alabama's rule against pyramiding inferences, i.e., that one inference cannot be based upon another, see e.g., Malone Freight Lines, Inc. v. McCardle, 277 Ala. 100, 107, 167 So.2d 274 (1964), was controlling on the federal court under Erie R.R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938), and therefore a judgment must be entered for defendant on the state law cause of action. 9 The magistrate erred in this ruling because Alabama's rule against pyramiding inferences is no more than a rule concerning the sufficiency of the evidence and therefore is a matter of federal law. Boeing Co. v. Shipman, 411 F.2d 365, 368-70 (5th Cir.1969) (en banc), settled that under Erie federal law controls questions of the sufficiency of the evidence in state law claims. 2 According to federal law there is no prohibition against pyramiding inferences; instead all inferences are permissible so long as they are reasonable. Fenner v. General Motors Corp., 657 F.2d 647, 650-51 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 942, 102 S.Ct. 1435, 71 L.Ed.2d 653 (1982); Cora Pub, Inc. v. Continental Casualty Co., 619 F.2d 482, 486 (5th Cir.1980). 10 Defendant contends that Alabama's rule against drawing one inference from another inference is analogous to the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur in that it determines when a case can be proved by circumstantial evidence, and that because res ipsa is a matter of state law, Kicklighter v. Nails by Jannee, Inc., 616 F.2d 734, 738-40 (5th Cir.1980), so should be the rule against pyramiding inferences. State doctrines of res ipsa loquitur are respected in federal court because the doctrine has assumed the status of a substantive rule of law, affecting plaintiff's burden of proof or production of evidence, The Doctrine of Res Ipsa Loquitur in Alabama, 26 Ala.L.Rev. 433, 444-58 (1974). There is no authority or rationale to support the contention that the rule against pyramiding inferences has assumed this same substantive law status or that it is any more than a rule concerning sufficiency of the evidence. Even if there were some doubt, the issue is settled by Equitable Life Assurance Society v. Fry, 386 F.2d 239 (5th Cir.1967). There the appellants contended that a jury verdict could not be upheld because, inter alia, it necessarily involved pyramiding of inferences. Id. at 241. The court held that the test to be applied in diversity cases to determine the sufficiency of the evidence for submission of a case to a jury is a matter of federal law, id. at 245, and held that the inferences drawn by the jury were reasonable under federal standards, id. at 245-48. 11