Armstrong v. ASARCO, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
138 F.3d 382 · 1998
Citation profile
8 federal appellate · 1 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently August 2014
8 federal appellate · 1 district ·
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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1291 · 28 U.S.C. § 636 · 33 U.S.C. § 1365
Relies on Hensley v. Eckerhart · Dataphase Systems, Inc. v. C L Systems, Inc. · Jenkins ex rel. Jenkins v. Missouri · Atlantic States Legal Foundation, Inc. v. Eastman Kodak Co. · Association for Retarded Citizens v. Schafer
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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In our opinion, plaintiffs played the roles of catalyst and private attorney general, just as Congress envisioned, thereby successfully contributing to ASARCO’s remediation efforts and eventual settlement with the EPA. When a polluter settles with government authorities following the commencement of a citizen suit, it is permissible to infer that the citizen suit motivated the settlement, thereby making the plaintiff a prevailing party. Thus, we reject ASARCO’s characterization of plaintiffs’ efforts as essentially unsuccessful and instead agree with the district court’s conclusion that plaintiffs are prevailing parties in the present case.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Th[e] consent decree required ASARCO to pay a $3.25 million civil penalty, to comply with monitoring requirements, to establish an interim treatment system, and to pay $1 million in environmental enhancement projects. Considering the original objective of the citizen plaintiffs in bringing suit against ASARCO, and weighing the relief ultimately obtained, the court finds that the citizen plaintiffs are prevailing parties within the mean ing of 33 U.S.C. § 1365 (d) and an award of attorney’s fees would be appropriate. Whether or not the citizen plaintiffs desired for stiffer penalties to be levied against ASARCO or for more stringent protection against future damage to the environment, they received essentially what was sought in the complaint — a cessation of pollution by, and a substantial civil fine levied against, the defendant.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.