Also known as: special circumstance
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Conditions or facts that justify deviating from or modifying a standard legal rule, measure, or requirement in a particular case.
Solomon Silver was pulled over for a broken taillight. A certified narcotics dog alerted on the trunk. Officers searched without a warrant. No evidence showed the dog had ever failed certification or been unreliable in the field, so the alert supplied probable cause.
Scott Summers accepted five refrigerated trailers that arrived with faulty cooling units. Market value at acceptance was far below the warranted amount. Because Summers had already used the trailers for two months before the defects surfaced, the court measured damages by value at dispossession rather than at acceptance.
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Sierra Santos told Solstice Ventures during negotiations that the trucks were needed to land a new national supply deal starting in December. When delivery was late, Santos lost the contract. The disclosure of that specific need made the loss foreseeable under the special-circumstances branch of the foreseeability test.
Sebastian Santos sued to enjoin a neighboring factory whose emissions had continued unchanged for five years. At the time of suit the factory had already invested heavily in new equipment. The court denied the injunction because circumstances at judgment, not at the time the nuisance began, controlled the equitable balance.
Sophia Singh filed a federal complaint seeking to enjoin an ongoing state criminal case against her. The state prosecution was brought in good faith and no showing was made that the state courts could not protect her federal rights. The federal court therefore declined to interfere.
Spencer Silver was tried with several codefendants on a single conspiracy count even though the evidence showed distinct schemes. The jury instructions failed to keep the conspiracies separate. Because the evidence against Silver was overwhelming and unrelated to the other schemes, the misjoinder did not affect the verdict.
A certified dog alert supplies probable cause unless special circumstances undermine the dog's reliability. Training and certification records can establish reliability even without field-performance statistics.
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The usual measure is the difference between value as warranted and value as accepted. Special circumstances, such as substantial use before dispossession or later appreciation in value, permit a different measure such as value at the time of dispossession.
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Loss is foreseeable when it results from special circumstances beyond the ordinary course of events and the breaching party had reason to know of those circumstances at contracting. Disclosure during negotiations satisfies the requirement.
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The balance of equities for an injunction is assessed as of the time of the order or judgment. Special circumstances may require looking to an earlier or later point in time.
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…States , 168 U. S. 532, 562 (1897). [^maj-38]: Cf. Betts v. Brady , 316 U. S. 455 (1942), and the recurrent inquiry into special circumstances it necessitated. See generally, Kamisar, Betts v. Brady Twenty Years Later: The Right to Counsel and Due Process Values, 61 Mich. L. Rev. 219 (1962). [^maj-39]: See Herman, The Supreme…