Knowles v. War Damage Corp.’s Empirical Analysis
171 F.2d 15 · 1948
Citation profile
32 federal appellate · 14 district · 13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 79 later decisions — most recently March 2001 · most notably Foster v. City of Detroit, Michigan (1966), Kainz v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc. (1952)
32 federal appellate · 14 district · 13 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 15 U.S.C. § 601
Relies on Hansberry v. Lee · Gibbs v. Buck · Keifer v. Reconstruction Finance Corp. · Thomson v. Gaskill · Clark v. Paul Gray, Inc.
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 79 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““This type of action is spoken of as a ‘spurious class action.’ The members’ interests may be several and not interdependent, although the remaining requisites of the true class action must be met. Their joinder is a matter of economy and efficiency on the part of courts and parties—an avoidance of a multiplicity of suits. Courts have possessed the power to afford and have afforded this remedy long before the adoption of the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The joinder was and is a matter of discretion in the trial court. However, both at the earlier date and now, when the interests are separate but a joinder is permitted, each individual claim must equal or exceed $3,000 before the action can be prosecuted in a federal court. When the claims are separate, they cannot be aggregated to surpass this jurisdictional threshold.” (Emphasis mine.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Wagner v. Kemper““There must be a showing of adequate representation of the class, for members of that class are to be bound by the outcome of the action. Issues determined in a true class action are res judicata so far as any member of that class is concerned, even though he never became a party to, or knew of, the class action itself. Factors bearing upon adequacy of representation are various and are not specifically enumerated in the law: It is pertinent to consider whether other members of the class have notice, express or constructive, of the pendency of the action and of its representative character; whether such members desire, or acquiesce in, such representation; whether the number of parties is sufficient as compared to the numerical size of the class.’’ [Emphasis supplied.]”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““(a) Representation. If persons constituting a class are so numerous as to make it impracticable to bring them all before the court, such of them, one or more, as will fairly insure the adequate representation of all may, on behalf of all, sue or be sued, when the character of the right sought to be enforced for or against the class is”
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.