United States v. Maxwell ex rel. Estate of Pyramid Industries, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 federal appellate ·

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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[o]utside of bankruptcy, the federal government is considered a single-entity that is entitled to set off one agency's debt to a party against that party's debt to another agency.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Neblett v. United States (In re AEH Trucking Co.) · Huff v. United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Housing (In Re Huff)

2. “There may be grounds on which the federal government could be denied its right to setoff in a particular case ..., but there is nothing in the record here to support such a judgment. The only possible wrongdoing by the government involved the Navy’s allegedly sloppy supervision of Pyramid’s selection of sureties. This issue was not raised below in the appellees’ arguments against setoff, and is of no consequence regardless, since even if the United States were negligent, it owed no duty to All American and Gerson.... The government of the United States suffers no special handicap under § 553 of the Bankruptcy Code. Indeed, it seems to us that such a rule would be inconsistent with the overall tenor of the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Reorganized CF & I Fabricators of Utah, Inc., 518 U.S. 213, 229 , 116 S.Ct. 2106 , 135 L.Ed.2d 506 (1996), which held that bankruptcy courts could not, in the name of equitable subordination, categorically subordinate certain claims, because such an act would intrude on the legislative function. Therefore, the SBA was entitled set off the Navy’s debt to Pyramid’s estate against the estate’s debt to the SBA....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Nuclear Imaging Systems, Inc.

3. “(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section and in sections 362 and 363 of this title, this title does not affect any right of a creditor to offset a mutual debt owing by such creditor to the debt- or that arose before the commencement of the ease under this title against a claim of such creditor against the debtor that arose before the commencement of the case....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Reed