Also known as: ultimate facts · material fact
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A conclusion of fact logically deduced from evidentiary facts. The conclusion supplies the decisive factual predicate for applying a legal rule or standard to the parties' dispute.
Umar Usmani sued Ultra Precision for breach after a machine failed. Ultra moved for summary judgment, arguing that the undisputed production logs and test results showed the machine met specifications. The court examined whether those records left any genuine dispute over the ultimate fact of conformity.
Umeko Uchida represented Upstream Petroleum before a regulatory board. She told the board that no prior spills had occurred at the site. The statement rested on an ultimate fact about the absence of spills that the lawyer knew was false.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Umar Underwood was acquitted of robbing one victim when the jury found he was not the perpetrator. The state then charged him with robbing a second victim from the same incident. The acquittal had resolved the ultimate fact of identity, barring the second prosecution.
Ulrike Ulrich told Una Unger that her grandson had been convicted of fraud, prompting Una to amend her trust to remove him as beneficiary. The false report supplied the ultimate fact that induced the donative transfer.
United Bank bought industrial pumps from Unison Media after seeing advertisements claiming the pumps were corrosion-proof. When the pumps failed, the bank sued. The advertisement created an ultimate fact about product quality on which the bank justifiably relied.
Ursula Upton represented a client who planned to sell defective equipment to a buyer. She learned the buyer was unaware of the defects. The client’s plan made the defects an ultimate fact that disclosure was required to avoid assisting the fraud.
An evidentiary fact is a raw item of proof such as a speed reading or a document. An ultimate fact is the conclusion drawn from those items, such as the conclusion that a driver was negligent.
A bare assertion that a party was negligent is an opinion, not evidence. The party must introduce the underlying evidentiary facts so the factfinder can draw the ultimate fact for itself.
When a valid final judgment has determined an ultimate fact in the defendant’s favor, collateral estoppel embodied in the Double Jeopardy Clause prevents relitigation of that fact in a later prosecution.
Yes. The court grants summary judgment only when the record shows no genuine dispute as to any material fact, meaning the ultimate facts that control the legal outcome are undisputed.
…the Commission under this subtitle, or to include in any evidence, books, or information so furnished any misrepresentation of a material fact, or to falsify or conceal any evidence, books, or information relevant to a certification by the Commission or an examination and audit by the Commission under this chapter; or (B) to fail…