Petterson v. Alaska S. S. Co.’s Empirical Analysis
205 F.2d 478 · 1953
Citation profile
139 federal appellate · 18 district · 8 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 217 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2003 · most notably Mitchell v. Trawler Racer, Inc. (1960), Alaska Steamship Co. v. Petterson (1954)
139 federal appellate · 18 district · 8 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.
Appellate journey
Relationships
Relies on Seas Shipping Co. v. Sieracki · The Osceola · Mahnich v. Southern Steamship Co. · Pillars v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
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 217 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“If the block was being put to a proper use in a proper manner, as found by the district judge, it is a logical inference that it would not have broken unless it was defective — that is, unless it was unseaworthy.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * And beyond this he is in position, as the worker is not, to distribute the loss in the shipping community which receives the service and should bear its cost. “These and other considerations arising from the hazards which maritime service places upon men who perform it, rather than any consensual basis of responsibility, have been the paramount influences dictating the shipowner’s liability for un seaworthiness as well as its absolute character. It is essentially a species' of liability without fault, analagous to other well known instances in our law. Derived from and shaped to meet the hazards which performing the service imposes, the liability is neither limited by conceptions of negligence nor contractual in character. * * * It is a form of absolute duty owing to all within the range of its humanitarian policy.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““* * * for injuries incurred while working on board the ship in navigable waters the stevedore [longshoreman] is entitled to the seaman’s-traditional and statutory protections, regardless of the fact that he is employed immediately by another than, the owner. For these purposes he is, in short, a seaman because he is. doing a seaman’s work and incurring a seaman’s hazards.” 328 U.S. p. 99, 66 S.Ct. pp. 879-880.”
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.