Fielding v. Allen’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

45 federal appellate · 3 district ·

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

1. ““ [I] t creates a new liability where none existed before, for it makes a stockholder who institutes a derivative action liable for the expense to which he puts the corporation and other defendants, if he does not make good his claims. Such liability is not usual and it goes beyond payment of what we know as ‘costs.’ If all the Act did was to create this liability, it would clearly be substantive. But this new liability would be without meaning and value in many cases if it resulted in nothing but a judgment for expenses at or after the end of the case'. Therefore, a procedure is prescribed by which the liability is insured by entitling the corporate defendant to a bond of indemnity before the outlay is incurred. We do not think a statute which so conditions the stockholder’s action can be disregarded by the federal court as a mere procedural device.” 337 U.S. at pages 555-556, 69 S.Ct. at page 1230 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 185 F. Supp. 242 - Goldstein v. Weisman

2. ““ * * * Although it is clear that the [corporation’s] right is federal in nature, the source of the shareholder’s right to sue on it requires some further examination. * * * [W]e think that the stockholder’s right to maintain a derivative action on a corporate right federal in nature is federally conferred. “The stockholder’s derivative suit *' * was early recognized by Chancery. It has long been familiar in the federal courts. And since the passage of the Act of March 3, 1875, 18 Stat. 470 [see 28 U.S.C.A. § 1331 ], conferring federal jurisdiction over cases arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, many federal questions of importance have been raised in stockholder’s derivative actions. Consequently we think that the right of a stockholder to sue on his corporation’s federal cause of action is itself federal in nature * *”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Brick v. Dominion Mortgage & Realty Trust

3. ““A complaint which sets forth a substantial claim under a federal statute presents a case within the jurisdiction of a federal court * *. Nor need the federal statute upon which the claim is based expressly provide that the plaintiff shall have a remedy by way of suit. Bell v. Hood [ 327 U.S. 678, 681 , 66 S.Ct. 773 , 90 L.Ed. 939 ]. Hence we have only to determine whether the second count of the complaint asserts a right of Ogden Corporation based on a law of the United States.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Mason v. Kavy