Pack v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
176 F.2d 770 · 1949
Citation profile
12 federal appellate · 5 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 27 later decisions — most recently February 1982 · most notably McKnight v. United States (1958), Hoffman v. United States (1968)
12 federal appellate · 5 district · 2 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 28 U.S.C. § 1331
Relies on United States v. Sherwood · Clearfield Trust Co. v. United States · Lynch v. United States · Neirbo Co. v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. · Lawrence v. Shaw
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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Appellant asserts that the insurance is community property and the surviving widow had a vested interest in one-half thereof because the premiums were paid out of earnings of Clyde while he and appellant were living together as husband and wife and were residents of California. This is the rule in California with respect to insurance policies issued by private corporations. An entirely different situation is presented in dealing with a policy issued by the federal government. It is important to keep in mind that the insurance policy with which we are concerned in this case was issued pursuant to the authority of a Congressional Act. * * * Thus, the contract of insurance issued by the Government has certain restrictions and limitations placed thereon by Congress, among which is the mandate that the proceeds may be paid only to the person designated in the policy as beneficiary. To order the Government to pay a portion of the proceeds of the policy to the wife would necessarily require us to ignore the plain provisions of the statute and the provisions of the contract. This we are not permitted to do if, in enacting the statute, Congress was lawfully exercising the authority vested in it. We see no constitutional limitation on the power of Congress to make provision as to the manner in which the Government shall contract with holders of National Service Life Insurance. These are contracts of the United States and possess the same legal incidents as other Government contracts. ”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“This claim of the wife, if it exists, is not a claim against the United States. It is, at most, a claim against proceeds which may be received by the mother and can only be litigated between wife and mother in a separate action. 176 F.2d 770 at 772 .”
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.