Court Opinion

ID: 9856373
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:46:10.396446+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:41.246216
License: Public Domain

VERNON R. PEDERSON, Surrogate Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur in the result reached by the majority and in most of the statements in the opinion. Not having heard the testimony of any of the witnesses, and not even having read the transcript, I am not able to reach a conclusion, based upon hypothetical assumptions, that a reasonable person (or a jury), acting as fact finder, could conclude that Linda’s death was even remotely a natural and probable consequence of any decision made by Lewis Ahlberg or Gail Hodgins. Regardless of the “botched” attempt to arrest, I know of no poisonous tree doctrine that can provide the missing privity. That part of the majority opinion is dicta and could be the basis for misunderstanding at the retrial, especially if the newly assigned judge believes, as I do, that this is a case that ought to be tried by a jury-