Walker v. Sheldon’s Empirical Analysis
1961
Citation profile
87 federal appellate · 6 district · 39 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 504 later decisions — most recently January 2018 · most notably 97 Wis. 2d 260 - Wangen v. Ford Motor Co. (1980), Smith v. Lightning Bolt Productions, Inc. (1988)
87 federal appellate · 6 district · 39 state decisions — followed in 10 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Bell v. Preferred Life Assurance Society · 146 Ohio St. 414 - Saberton v. Greenwald · Kujek v. . Goldman · Hamilton v. . Third Avenue Railroad Co. · Laughlin v. Hopkinson
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 504 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"Exemplary damages are more likely to serve their desired purpose of deterring similar conduct in a fraud case, such as that before us, than in any other area of tort. One who acts out of anger or hate, for instance, in committing assault or libel, is not likely to be deterred by the fear of punitive damages. On the other hand, those who deliberately and cooly engage in a far-flung fraudulent scheme, systematically conducted for profit, are very much more likely to pause and consider the consequences if they have to pay more than the actual loss suffered by an individual plaintiff. An occasional award of compensatory damages against such parties would have little deterrent effect. A judgment simply for compensatory damages would require the offender to do no more than return the money which he had taken from the plaintiff. In the calculation of his expected profits, the wrongdoer is likely to allow for a certain amount of money which will have to be returned to those victims who object too vigorously, and he will be perfectly content to bear the additional cost of litigation as the price for continuing his illicit business. It stands to reason that the chances of deterring him are materially increased by subjecting him to the payment of punitive damages." Boise Dodge, supra, 92 Idaho at 909, 453 P.2d at 558 .”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage“A claim for punitive damages against an insurer is cognizable in New York only in circumstances where a plaintiff has made sufficient evidentiary allegations of ultimate facts of a fraudulent and deceitful scheme in dealing with the general public as to imply a criminal indifference to civil obligations.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage“... [W]e are persuaded that, on the basis of analogy, reason and principle, there may be a recovery of exemplary damages in fraud and deceit actions where the fraud, aimed at the public generally, is gross and involves high moral culpability. [at 491, 179 N.E. 2d 497 ]”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.