Hutchison v. Tompkins’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 58 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 70 later decisions — most recently January 2019 · most notably 573 So. 2d 326 - Lefemine v. Baron (1991), Zim v. Western Publishing Co. (1978)
4 federal appellate · 58 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 Pembroke v. Caudill · Hyman v. Cohen · Warfield v. Hepburn · 91 So. 2d 320 - Augustine v. Southern Bell Telephone & Tel. Co. · Moses v. Autuono
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 70 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“appears unconscionable in light of the circumstances existing at the time of breach.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage““The better result, in our judgment, as Hyman [Hyman v. Cohen, 73 So.2d 393 (Fla.1954)] contemplates, is to allow the liquidated damage clause to stand if the damages are not readily ascertainable at the time the contract is drawn, but to permit equity to relieve against the forfeiture if it appears unconscionable in light of the circumstances existing at the time of [the] breach. For instance, assume a situation in which damages were not readily ascertainable at the time the contract was drawn, and the parties agreed to a liquidated damage provision of $100,000. Purchaser later repudiated the contract; vendor resold the land to another party, which because of fluctuations in the real estate market, resulted in a loss to himself of only $2,000. In such a case a court following the Hyman theory would allow the liquidated damage clause to stand, because damages were not readily ascertainable at the time of drawing the contract, but would, as a court of equity, relieve against the forfeiture as unconscionable . “The instant case falls squarely within Hyman. A contract for the sale of land generally suffers from the same uncertainty as to possible future damages as a lease agreement. The land sale market in Florida fluctuates from year to year and season to season, and it is generally impossible to say at the time a contract for sale is drawn what a vendor’s loss (if any) will be should the contract be breached by purchaser’s failure to close. Accordingly, in the instant case we ”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“* * * * * * "Finally, we disagree that a finding that the liquidated damage provision constituted a penalty would have required that the complaint be dismissed for failure to state a cause of action. It is well established in Florida that where the allegations of a complaint show the invasion of a legal right, the plaintiff on the basis thereof may recover at least nominal damages, and a motion to dismiss should be overruled. Williams v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 56 Fla. 735 , 48 So. 209 , 24 L.R.A.,N.S., 134 (1909) and Augustine v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co., 91 So.2d 320 (Fla. 1956)." * * * * * *”
2 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.