Court Opinion

ID: 9468743
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:22:30.450198+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:01.892487
License: Public Domain

John W. PECK, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring.
In a separate concurrence to the opinion filed following this panel’s first consideration of this case, by agreeing to the remand to the district court, I at least inferentially concurred in the conclusion that upon a proper showing the “burden of proof” would shift to defendants. Unfortunately, “[t]he term ‘burden of proof’ may well be an ambiguous term connoting either the burden of going forward with the evidence, the burden of persuasion, or both.” Wilson v. Omaha Indian Tribe, 442 U.S. 653, 669, 99 S.Ct. 2529, 2539, 61 L.Ed.2d 153 (1979). I am now of the view that use of the phrase “burden of proof” was improvident, and that the more appropriate phrase would have been the “burden of next proceeding” or the “burden of going forward.” At the time this case was previously before us it was neither suggested nor contemplated that evidence of the caloric contents of the once-a-day meals simply does not exist. I am of the opinion that the depositions failed to produce any admissible relevant evidence, and with all due respect to the district judge and to the majority opinion, that the findings of fact lack support in the record. Thus, although defendants failed to sustain “the burden of proof,” they did “next proceed” (or “go forward”). In such situation, where the record continues to be void of evidence of an essential element of the plaintiff’s case, the plaintiff must be non-suited. I would affirm the judgment of the district court on that ground.