United States District Court, N.D. California
FINAL JURY INSTRUCTIONS
HAYWOOD S. GILLIAM, JR., UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
INSTRUCTION
NO. 1
DUTY
OF JURY
Members
of the Jury: Now that you have heard all of the evidence and
the arguments of the attorneys, it is my duty to instruct you
on the law that applies to this case.
Each of
you has received a copy of these instructions that you may
take with you to the jury room to consult during your
deliberations.
It is
your duty to find the facts from all the evidence in the
case. To those facts you will apply the law as I give it to
you. You must follow the law as I give it to you whether you
agree with it or not. And you must not be influenced by any
personal likes or dislikes, opinions, prejudices, or
sympathy. That means that you must decide the case solely on
the evidence before you. You will recall that you took an
oath to do so.
Please
do not read into these instructions or anything that I may
say or do or have said or done that I have an opinion
regarding the evidence or what your verdict should be.
INSTRUCTION
NO. 2
CLAIMS
AND DEFENSES
By way
of reminder, I will give you a brief summary of the position
of the parties:
This is
a class action lawsuit. Plaintiff Phillip Racies, on behalf
of himself and other California purchasers of the dietary
supplement Prevagen®, asserts that Defendant Quincy
Bioscience, LLC violated the Consumers Legal Remedies Act
because Plaintiff contends that Defendant has made false or
misleading statements about the benefits of Prevagen.
Specifically,
Plaintiff contends that Prevagen labels represent, among
other things, that Prevagen “improves memory.”
Plaintiff contends that the statement is false because
apoeaquorin, the active ingredient in Prevagen, cannot work
because it is completely destroyed by the human digestion
process and cannot pass through the human blood brain
barrier.
Defendant
denies Plaintiff's allegations and denies that the label
statements are false or misleading. Defendant contends that
Plaintiff cannot meet his burden to prove that Prevagen does
not improve memory or cognitive function for any consumers.
INSTRUCTION
NO. 3
CORPORATIONS
AND PARTNERSHIPS-FAIR TREATMENT
All
parties are equal before the law and a corporation is
entitled to the same fair and conscientious consideration by
you as any party.
INSTRUCTION
NO. 4
LIBAILITY
OF CORPORATIONS-SCOPE OF AUTHORITY NOT IN ISSUE
Under
the law, a corporation is considered to be a person. It can
only act through its employees, agents, directors, or
officers. Therefore, a corporation is responsible for the
acts of its employees, agents, directors, and officers
performed within the scope of their authority.
INSTRUCTION
NO. 5
“CLASS
ACTION” DEFINED
A class
action is a lawsuit that has been brought by one or more
plaintiffs on behalf of a larger group of people who have
similar legal claims. All of these people together are called
a “class.” Plaintiff Philip Racies brings this
action as the class representative.
In a
class action, the claims of many individuals can be resolved
at the same time instead of requiring each member to sue
separately. Because of the large number of claims that are at
issue in this case, not everyone in the class testified. You
may assume that the evidence at this trial applies to all
class members. All members of the class will be bound by the
result of this trial.
In this
case, the class consists of the following:
All California consumers who, within the time period of
January 21, 2012 to May 7, 2019, purchased Prevagen Regular
Strength, Prevagen Extra Strength, or Prevagen Mixed Berry
Chewable.
INSTRUCTION
NO. 6
BURDEN
OF PROOF-PREPONDERANCE OF THE EVIDENCE
When a
party has the burden of proving any claim or affirmative
defense by a preponderance of the evidence, it means you must
be persuaded by the evidence that the claim or affirmative
defense is more probably true than not true.
You
should base your decision on all of the evidence, regardless
of which party presented it.
INSTRUCTION
NO. 7
WHAT
IS EVIDENCE
The
evidence you are to consider in deciding what the facts are
consists of:
1. the sworn testimony of any witness;
2. the exhibits that are admitted into evidence;
3. any facts to which the lawyers have agreed; and
4. any facts that I may instruct you to accept ...