So, picture it, someone sues another person in federal court, the case gets appealed and then appealed again to the Supreme Court of the USA. What percentage of cases get reversed when the case goes from the Federal appellate court to the SCOTUS.
What got me thinking about this was when I read a recent opinion (Small v. WellDine Inc.) sent from the 4th Circuit court of appeal in North Carolina. Seems a pharmacist had made a mistake when filling a prescription. Seems the pharmacist had filled sent the wrong pills to the wrong person. Seems the person who got the wrong pills didn't bother to look at the label before taking the pills resulting in the patient's death six weeks later.
The court, in it's decision, noted that failure to read the label on the bottle of pills was not contributory negligence as a matter of law meaning that (and it was the defendant's contention that) the patient should have read the label of the bottle before popping the pills.
This brings me to the original point. See, on first read, my inner lawyer swelled up and I was thinking what dimwit doesn't read the label of pills before taking them? If nothing else, I'll read a label simply to know how many pills to take and when.
Also, has anyone ever gone for a physical and the doctor starts asking what drugs they take? I don't take anything right now but for a while I had one that was particularly difficult to remember (let alone pronounce) and I had to call the wife to find out what it was I was taking - and when.
The point is, everyone reads labels. Not reading a label is foolish and in my estimation, the court was a bit too liberal in granting the appeal. Which brings me to my point - what percentage of cases that get appealed to the SCOTUS are reversed? According to Ballotpedia, since 2007, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has been reversed only about 56% and, according to the chart below, it was reversed only about 50% since 2018. Not bad.
| SCOTUS decisions by circuit, 2018 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Court | Decided | Affirmed | Reversed | Percent Reversed |
| First Circuit | 2 | 1 | 1 | 50.0% |
| Second Circuit | 5 | 1 | 4 | 80.0% |
| Third Circuit | 3 | 1 | 2 | 66.7% |
| Fourth Circuit | 4 | 2 | 2 | 50.0% |
| Fifth Circuit | 4 | 2 | 2 | 50.0% |
| Sixth Circuit | 7 | 4 | 3 | 42.9% |
| Seventh Circuit | 1 | 0 | 1 | 100% |
| Eighth Circuit | 4 | 1 | 3 | 75.0% |
| Ninth Circuit | 14 | 2 | 12 | 85.7% |
| Tenth Circuit | 2 | 1 | 1 | 50.0% |
| Eleventh Circuit | 7 | 4 | 3 | 42.9% |
| D.C. Circuit | 3 | 2 | 1 | 33.3% |
| Federal Circuit | 4 | 2 | 2 | 50.0% |
| Armed Forces | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| State Court | 11 | 2 | 9 | 82.0% |
| U.S. District Court | 3 | 1 | 2 | 66.7% |
| Original Jurisdiction | 0 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Total | 74 | 26 | 48 | 64.9% |
Well, not as bad as...say the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal which holds the current record of 85.7%. Can you say ouch?!
If I were a sitting judge knowing that my decisions are so out of whack with the law that over 80% of my decisions were being reversed, I'd be going to work with a paper sack over my head.
So, why is this important? I suspect it's more of a curiosity than anything but if I were filing suit in federal court, I'd want to make sure that if there were a possibility that the case might be appealed, I'd want to try my case in a court that had a better track record than the 9th circuit court of appeal. I'm just saying.
Anyway, always good practice to keep a weathered eye on how the courts are deciding cases because you never know when you'll need an ace up your sleeve.
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