Walker v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
159 F.3d 938 · 1998
Citation profile
16 federal appellate · 2 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 35 later decisions — most recently September 2019 · most notably Bombardier Aerospace Employee Welfare Benefits Plan v. Ferrer, Poirot & Wansbrough (2003), Fortis Benefits v. Cantu (2007)
16 federal appellate · 2 district · 3 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
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 1022 (§ 102 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974)
Relies on Firestone Tire and Rubber Company v. Bruch · Sunbeam-Oster Company Inc Group Benefits Plan for Salaried and Non-Bargaining Hourly Employees v. Whitehurst · Jones v. Georgia Pacific Corp.
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 35 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“recover benefits previously paid by the PLAN to the extent of any and all of the ... payments resulting from a judgment or settlement, or other payment or payments”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[i]nterpreting the provisions to provide for attorneys' fees and expenses would have been wholly improper ...”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“shall have discretionary authority to interpret the terms of the Plan and to determine eligibility for and entitlement to Plan benefits in accordance with the terms of the Plan. Any interpretation or determination made pursuant to such discretionary authority shall be given full force and effect, unless it can be shown that the interpretation or determination was arbitrary and capricious.”
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.