Question Of Fact - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition question-of-fact

Definition :

Question of fact, is one capable of being answered by way of demonstration, a question of opinion is one that cannot be so answered. The answer to it is a matter of speculation which cannot be proved by any available evidence to be right or wrong. The past history of a company's business is a matter of fact, but its prospects of successful business in the future is a matter of opinion, Salmond on Jurisprudence, 12th Edn., p. 69: AIR 1994 SC 678.

Means an issue that has not been predetermined and authoritatively answered by the law. An example is whether a particular criminal defendant is guilty of an offense or whether a contractor has delayed unreasonably in constructing a building, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1260.

Question of fact might be stated in an issue without pleadings by consent (C.L.P. Act, 1852, s. 42), and may now be so stated under (English) R.S.C. Ord. XXXIV, r. 9.

In general when a jury is sworn it decides all the issues of fact; but if there arise in the course of the trial a question of fact preliminary to the decision of a point of law, etc., e.g., the genuineness of a document at necessary to its being admitted in evidence, that question of fact must be decided by the judge.

So in questions as to the competence of a witness to be sworn. See VOIR DIRE; WITNESS; OATH.

The law of a foreign country is a question of fact. See FOREIGN LAW.