Beck v. Megli’s Empirical Analysis
1941
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 9 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently December 2014
4 federal appellate · 9 state decisions
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 Braden v. Neal · City of Kansas v. Industrial Gas Co. · Condon v. Kemper · Hudson v. Barratt · City of Topeka v. National Surety Co.
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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"`In determining whether contractual agreements are to be treated as penalties or as liquidated damages, courts look behind the words used by the contracting parties to the facts and the nature of the transaction. The use of the terms "penalty" or "liquidated damages" in the instrument is of evidentiary value only. It is given weight and is ordinarily accepted as controlling unless the facts and circumstances impel a contrary holding. * * * The instrument must be considered as a whole, and the situation of the parties, the nature of the subject matter and the circumstances surrounding its execution taken into account. There are two considerations which are given special weight in support of a holding that a contractual provision is for liquidated damages rather than a penaltythe first is that the amount stipulated is conscionable, that it is reasonable in view of the value of the subject matter of the contract and of the probable or presumptive loss in case of breach; and the second is that the nature of the transaction is such that the amount of actual damage resulting from default would not be easily and readily determinable. * * *' (p. 726 [Beck v. Megli, 153 Kan. 721 , 114 P.2d 305 ], 114 P.2d p. 308.)" White Lakes Shopping Center, Inc. v. Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company, 208 Kan. 121 , 490 P.2d 609, 613 .”
6 later decisions 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.