The Question Method of Legal Research Interactive Legal Research Modules
← All modules

Chapter 5 · Appendix B

How to Read a Case

You do not read an opinion front to back like a story. You read the caption first, because the court and the jurisdiction tell you whether the case can bind you, and then you read for the parts that answer the question you brought. The same opinion reads differently for class than it does for a research question. This page lets you do both, on a real Arizona Supreme Court opinion.

Before you read

The situation. Your client’s sixteen-year-old was hurt at a state-run lake recreation area. A well-worn path led to a rock ledge above a swimming cove; there were no signs anywhere in the park; the ledge gave way under her. Your supervising attorney wants one thing answered first: does the State even owe park visitors a duty of care? The secondary source you read (Appendix A) pointed you to this case for that question.

The case. In 1975 a fifteen-year-old dove from a cliff into a cove at Lake Havasu, struck a shallow ledge, and was paralyzed. No signs prohibited diving. The State won without a trial on the theory that it owed him no duty. The Arizona Supreme Court took the case to explain what “duty” means.

Invitee
Someone on land by the possessor’s invitation, for a purpose the possessor holds the land open for. A park visitor is the standard example. The law owes invitees the most care.
Possessor
Whoever controls the land, not only whoever owns it. Here the United States owned the lake area and leased it to Arizona, so the State was the possessor.
Duty vs. breach
Duty asks whether the defendant owed this plaintiff any obligation of care at all; a judge decides it. Breach asks whether the defendant’s conduct fell short of reasonable care; a jury usually decides it.
Summary judgment
A ruling without a trial because, the court concludes, no facts are in dispute and the law decides the case. When it is reversed, the case goes back for trial.

How to engage with an opinion

    Elided for teaching · public-domain opinion text[…] marks omitted text

    Citator report (simplified for teaching)

    Caution · later statutory change Treatment: the opinion’s discussion of the plaintiff’s own fault speaks in terms of contributory negligence. Arizona now applies comparative fault by statute, A.R.S. § 12-2505: the plaintiff’s fault reduces recovery in proportion rather than barring it.

    A signal attaches to the case. Reliance attaches to a holding. Before you rely on any part of an opinion, read the treatment against the question you are holding: does it reach that holding, or a different one?

    This panel is illustrative. It shows how a treatment note is read against a question; it is not a live KeyCite or Shepard’s result. Run the real citator before you rely on the case.

    Would you cite it? Markowitz is an Arizona Supreme Court decision, en banc: it binds every Arizona court. That settles weight. Whether it is still good law on the point you need is a separate check, and the citator panel above shows why the two questions are asked separately.