Ryan v. Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
209 F.2d 53 · 1953
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 4 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently September 2001
3 federal appellate · 4 district · 3 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 Clifford Macevoy Co v. United States · State v. Benjamin F. Bennett Building Co. · State v. City of Baltimore · Ryan v. Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard, 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Although acting independently of the other, the principal contractor and the subcontractor, with his workmen employed in the execution of the work, were each, in his own separate capacity, co-operating toward the execution of the whole of a particular work which the principal contractor had promised to perform; and the liability of the principal contractor to pay compensation to the employees of the subcontractor is confined to only these employees who were actually engaged in the execution of the whole or a portion of that one piece of work at the time of injury. It is this necessary employment of the employee of the subcontractor upon the piece of work which the principal contractor has agreed to perform that forms the basis of the statutory relation between the workman and the principal contractor, and, although it does not establish the relation of master and servant, as known to the common law, because of the intervention of the subcontractor as the workmen’s master, yet the act creates a status which for the purposes of the act is that of employer and employee, as is explicit in the provision of section 62 that the principal contractor must pay compensation “as if that workman had been immediately employed by him.” [Id. at 166.]”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Hardly could it be contended that Archer was a mere seller rather than a sub-contractor. The result of its work was integrally incorporated into the tunnel, just as in the Bennett case the tile floors were integrally incorporated into the building. Under the contract before us, the installation of the refrigerating machinery was to be done entirely by Bethlehem. [Id. 209 F. 2d at 56 .]”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1) a principal contractor 4 (2) who has contracted to perform work (3) which is a part of his trade, business or occupation; and (4) who has contracted with any other party as a subcontractor for the execution by or under the subcontractor of the whole or any part of such work.”
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.