Bartlett v. Commerce Insurance’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 district · 7 state decisions

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

1. “For an ambiguity to exist, the disagreement must be reasonable. . . . [T]his court will not perform amazing feats of linguistic gymnastics to find a purported ambiguity simply to construe the policy against the insurer and create coverage where it is clear that none was intended.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Motorists Commercial Mutual Insurance Company v. Hartwell · Michelle Russell & a. v. NGM Insurance Company

2. “The fundamental goal of interpreting an insurance policy, as in all contracts, is to carry out the intent of the contracting parties.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Exeter Hospital, Inc. v. Steadfast Insurance Company · Michelle Russell & a. v. NGM Insurance Company

3. “In determining whether an ambiguity exists, we will look to the claimed ambiguity, consider it in its appropriate context, and construe the words used according to their plain, ordinary, and popular definitions.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Michelle Russell & a. v. NGM Insurance Company