SmartBrief
Confirm favorite deletion?
Products Liability Keyed to Fischer, 6th Ed.
Grundberg v. Upjohn Co.
Citation:
813 P.2d 89 (1991)Facts
On June 19, 1988, Ilo Grundberg shot and killed her 83-year-old mother, Mildred Coats, with whom she lived in a mobile home in Hurricane, Utah. Grundberg had been taking Halcion, a prescription sleep medication manufactured by Upjohn, at a 0.5 milligram dose as prescribed by her physician. Grundberg and Janice Gray, the personal representative of Coats’ estate, filed a lawsuit against Upjohn, claiming that Grundberg shot her mother while in a state of Halcion-induced intoxication that included side effects such as depression, psychosis, depersonalization, aggressive assaultive behavior, and homicidal compulsion. Their complaint included claims for both negligence (failure to adequately warn) and strict liability (defective design). The criminal charges against Grundberg were dropped after alienists’ reports were submitted. The case came to the Utah Supreme Court as a certified question from the federal district court regarding whether Utah would adopt comment k’s exception to strict liability and how it would be applied to prescription drugs.
Only StudyBuddy Pro offers the complete Case Brief Anatomy*
Access the most important case brief elements for optimal case understanding.
*Case Brief Anatomy includes: Brief Prologue, Complete Case Brief, Brief Epilogue
- The Brief Prologue provides necessary case brief introductory information and includes:
Topic:
Identifies the topic of law and where this case fits within your course outline.Parties:
Identifies the cast of characters involved in the case.Procedural Posture & History:
Shares the case history with how lower courts have ruled on the matter.Case Key Terms, Acts, Doctrines, etc.:
A case specific Legal Term Dictionary.Case Doctrines, Acts, Statutes, Amendments and Treatises:
Identifies and Defines Legal Authority used in this case.
- The Case Brief is the complete case summarized and authored in the traditional Law School I.R.A.C. format. The Pro case brief includes:
Brief Facts:
A Synopsis of the Facts of the case.Rule of Law:
Identifies the Legal Principle the Court used in deciding the case.Facts:
What are the factual circumstances that gave rise to the civil or criminal case? What is the relationship of the Parties that are involved in the case.Issue(s):
Lists the Questions of Law that are raised by the Facts of the case.Holding:
Shares the Court's answer to the legal questions raised in the issue.Concurring / Dissenting Opinions:
Includes valuable concurring or dissenting opinions and their key points.Reasoning and Analysis:
Identifies the chain of argument(s) which led the judges to rule as they did.
- The Brief Prologue closes the case brief with important forward-looking discussion and includes:
Policy:
Identifies the Policy if any that has been established by the case.Court Direction:
Shares where the Court went from here for this case.