West v. McCoy’s Empirical Analysis
1958
Citation profile
8 federal appellate · 5 district · 22 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 39 later decisions — most recently December 2004 · most notably Smith v. Brennan (1960), Humes v. Clinton (1990)
8 federal appellate · 5 district · 22 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 Woods v. Lancet · Verkennes v. Corniea · Dietrich v. Inhabitants of Northampton · RAINEY v. Horn · Poliquin v. MacDonald
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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Whenever the death of a- person shall be caused by the wrongful act, neglect or default of another and the act, neglect or default is such as would, if death had not ensued, have entitled the party injured to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereof, the person who would have been liable, if death had not ensued, shall be liable to an action for damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured * *”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““There is a medical distinction between the term ‘embryo’ and the phrase ‘viable fetus’. The embryo is the fetus in the earliest stage of development but the expression ‘viable fetus’ means the child has reached a stage of development where it can live outside the female body as well as within it. A fetus generally becomes a viable child between the sixth and seventh month of its existence. * * * ””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“We have no difficulty in concluding that a foetus having reached that period of prenatal maturity where it is capable of independent life apart from its mother is a person and if such a child is injured, it may after birth maintain an action for such injuries. A few courts have gone further and held that such an action may be maintained even if the infant had not reached the state of a viable foetus at the time of the injury. [Citations omitted.] This question is not presented and we intimate no opinion thereabout. Our decision is limited to liability for prenatal injuries to a viable child born alive.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.