Palsgraf v. Long Island R.R. Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1928
Citation profile
363 federal appellate · 149 district · 1,341 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,292 later decisions (26 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2025 · most notably Associated General Contractors of California, Inc. v. California State Council of Carpenters (1983), Martinez v. California (1980)
363 federal appellate · 149 district · 1,341 state decisions — followed in 49 states
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 Martin v. Herzog · Bird v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance · Ehrgott v. . Mayor, Etc., of City of N.Y. · Frank Munsey v. Wesley Webb T · West Virginia Central & Pittsburg R. Co. v. State Ex Rel. Fuller
Cited together with Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · Dillon v. Legg · Erie Co v. Tompkins · Conley v. Gibson
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 2,292 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[t]he risk reasonably to be perceived defines the duty to be obeyed.”
38 later decisions quote this exact passage“'Proof of negligence in the air, so to speak, will not do',”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage“One who seeks redress at law does not make out a cause of action by showing without more that there has been damage to his person.”
7 later decisions 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.