Williams v. Molpus’s Empirical Analysis
171 F.3d 360 · 1999
Citation profile
8 federal appellate · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently June 2025
8 federal appellate · 1 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 Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corporation · Vaca v. Sipes · Hines v. Anchor Motor Freight, Inc. · Ford Motor Co v. Huffman International Union United Automobile Aircraft and Agricultural Implementworkers of America Ci
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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“‘An action will not lie against a union for failure to process a grievance absent a showing of fraud, misrepresentation, bad faith, dishonesty of purpose or such gross mistake or inaction as to imply bad faith.’ In order to prove a breach, the complaint must allege more than simply conclusory statements. ‘In particular plaintiffs must make a showing that the action or inaction of the [union] representative complained of was motivated by bad faith .... ’ Moreover, a union does not have to process a grievance that it deems lacks merit, as long as it makes that determination in good faith.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“to serve the interests of all members without hostility or discrimination toward any, to exercise its discretion with complete good faith and honesty, and to avoid arbitrary conduct.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he general requirement that a grievant must exhaust his or her internal union remedies, however, is excused if the union breaches its duty of fair representation”
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.