Phelps v. Donaldson’s Empirical Analysis
1963
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 84 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 96 later decisions — most recently August 2018 · most notably Wyler v. Tripi (1971), 593 So. 2d 351 - Harvey v. Dixie Graphics, Inc. (1992)
6 federal appellate · 84 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 142 So. 2d 585 - Phelps v. Donaldson
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 96 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"We think the general rule universally obtaining on the subject matter is that: `When a physician undertakes the treatment of a case he does not guarantee a cure, nor is any promise to effect a cure or even a partial healing to be implied, nor does the law raise from the fact of employment an implied undertaking to cure, but only an undertaking to use ordinary skill and care. For this reason a physician cannot be held up to a standard of civil responsibility similar to that of engineers, mechanics, and shipbuilders. Of course a physician might contract specifically to cure and he would be liable on his contract for failure, but, in the absence of such a special and peculiar contract, the fact that treatment has resulted unfavorably does not even raise a presumption of want of proper care, skill, or diligence. * * *' 21 R.C.L. Sec. 36, p. 391. Also, see 70 C.J.S. Physicians and Surgeons § 57, pp. 981, 982 `A dentist, like a physician or surgeon, is not an insurer or guarantor of results, in the absence of express agreement.' 41 Am.Jur., Physicians and Surgeons, Sec. 104, p. 219."”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage“and therefore as a matter of law the tort claim had prescribed.... Therefore the remaining issue ... is the plaintiff's alternative demand, i.e., the existence of a contract ... wherein specified results were warranted....”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“for damages in tort for alleged malpractice ... and alternatively, for damages for the breach of contract warranting particular results.”
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.