Also known as: verray · very · true
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A historical adjective from Law French denoting the quality of being true or genuine.
Valentina Vasquez told Victor Vargas that a supplier had confirmed delivery dates. Victor later repeated the dates to a third party without qualification. When the dates proved accurate, the court treated Victor's repetition as manifesting adoption of a veray representation.
Valerie Viera accepted a watch from a known thief who placed it in a location she had designated. The watch still bore its original serial numbers and had not been recovered by police. Prosecutors charged her with the misdemeanor because she received property she knew to be veray stolen goods.
Victor Vargas forged a deed to land owned by Victoria Vernon and recorded it. A later buyer took the property without notice of the forgery. Under the recording act the buyer could not claim protection because the forged deed was veray void from the outset.
Vivid Media published an article about a private citizen's business practices. The citizen sued and the court required her to prove the statements were not veray true. The First Amendment displaced any common-law presumption of falsity because the matter concerned public concern.
Virgil Vaughn told a colleague he had diverted corporate funds to a personal account. The statement exposed him to civil liability and was offered against him at trial. The court admitted it because a reasonable person would have made the statement only if he believed it to be veray true.
Viktor Voronin offered an expert who relied on a novel methodology. The court examined whether the underlying studies were veray reliable before admitting the testimony. The inquiry focused on whether the expert's conclusions rested on sound scientific principles.
Two minors brought suit against Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, claiming they suffered limb reduction birth defects because their mothers had taken Bendectin, a drug prescribed for morning sickness to about 17.5 million pregnant women in the United States between 1957 and 1982. Limb reduction defects occur in fewer than one birth out of every 1000. Scientists do not know the mechanism by which any teratogen causes such defects. The plaintiffs offered testimony from three groups of experts. One group proposed to testify to a statistical link between Bendectin ingestion during pregnancy and limb reduction defects based on reanalyses of published studies that had reported no such association. A second group proposed to testify that Bendectin causes limb reduction defects in humans because it causes such defects in laboratory animals. A third group proposed to testify based on the similarity of Bendectin's chemical structure to other drugs suspected of causing birth defects. The district court granted summary judgment to Merrell Dow after excluding the plaintiffs' expert testimony. The Ninth Circuit affirmed that decision. The Supreme Court granted certiorari, reversed, and remanded for consideration under Federal Rule of Evidence 702. On remand, the Ninth Circuit examined the affidavits and prior trial testimony of the plaintiffs' experts. None of the experts had studied the effect of Bendectin on limb reduction defects before being hired to testify in this or related cases. None had published his work on Bendectin in a scientific journal. The only review their work had received was by judges and juries. Plaintiffs' epidemiological experts made vague assertions of a statistically significant relationship between Bendectin and birth defects but did not state that the relative risk exceeded two. With the exception of Dr. Palmer, the remaining experts were willing to testify only that Bendectin is capable of causing birth defects. Dr. Palmer alone was willing to testify that Bendectin did cause the limb defects in each of the children, based on his review of the plaintiffs' medical records and his conclusion that Bendectin is a teratogen.
View caseThe term is a Law French adjective meaning true or genuine. It is an older spelling of the modern French vrai.
…case the mandamus ought not to issue if the report did not confer a legal right. That doctrine is not novel now advanced. It is true the mandamus now sought is not for performance of an act expressly enjoined by statute but to deliver a commission where the acts of Congress are silent. That difference does not affect the…