Ybarra v. Spangard et al- (Supreme Court of California, 1944)

Two days following the Battle of Endor, Han Solo woke up blind. The next day, Solo consulted with a medical droid, who stated that it was a possible side-effect of his time in suspended animation in carbonite weeks earlier. While such a prolonged reaction to the process was rare, the droid stated that the possibility of such a malady was dramatically increased if the process was performed negligently.

When Solo attempted to contact and confront the carbonite crew on Bespin, they refused to respond to inquiries regarding his processing. Han then filed a lawsuit accusing negligence against the crew, relying on the doctrine of Res Ipsa Loquitur.

This doctrine transfers the burden of proof when three elements are satisfied: 1) the harm to the plaintiff must be of the kind which ordinarily does not occur in the absence of negligence, 2) it must be caused by an an agency or instrumentality in exclusive control of the defendant, and 3) the plaintiff must not have contributed to the negligence by voluntary action. The newly reconstructed Republic Court fully agreed, reasoning that the carbonite processing instruments were fully under the control of the bespin crew, and that Han, being fully restrained and in the hands of the Empire could not have contributed to the potential negligence.

Having satisfied all three elements, the burden then transferred to the Bespin carbonite crew to prove that they were NOT negligent in treating Han. The New Republic Court specifically noted that there had recently been a liberalization of the Res Ipsa Loquitur doctrine that encouraged its use in this case. Han was unlikely to have much evidence of negligence by the crew. In order to overcome a "circle of silence", that simply by remaining silent and withholding evidence the carbonite crew could prevail against Han, the doctrine should be applied.