RESEMBLANCE AND EXACTITUDE

Witness (W) has testified that he had authority from boss/supervisor to do something, some time ago.
L asks the following question:
Q. Do you remember exactly what he said to you? A. No.
Q. Then how do you know that he gave you authority?
Comment: Last question is silly. Three errors. (1) “Exactly?  Most of us don’t remember exactly what was said to us yesterday, unless it’s “No.”(2)  We often don’t really member what was said. We just know that Boss said something like, “Do this, and not that,” more or less.  (3) When we have repeat tasks, we are often authorized to do them in generally patterned ways. Thus the instruction W received on Monday the 1st will resemble the one she gets on Tuesday the 14th, but they may not have similar wording at all.
Thus one answer to the more general version of the question is, “I know because I know, looking back,  sort of what he might have said, and–in any case–I did my assigned thing and I don’t remember his bitching about it.”
Obviously the following question is absurd: “Very well, do you remember exactly how he communicated his not bitching?” Semantic exactitudenarianism is ill advised, under most–or at least many–circumstances.
*Michael Sean Quinn, Ph.D., J.D.

The Law Firm of Michael Sean Quinn

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In honor of the general topic, not proofed carefully