Wolfmeyer v. Otis Elevator Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1953
Citation profile
7 federal appellate · 30 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 38 later decisions — most recently October 2018 · most notably 31 Ill. 2d 69 - Nelson v. Union Wire Rope Corp. (1964), Evans v. Otis Elevator Co. (1961)
7 federal appellate · 30 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 Orcutt v. Century Building Co. · Marks v. Nambil Realty Co., Inc. · Dahms v. General Elevator Co. · Berry v. Emery, Bird, Thayer Dry Goods Co. · Lambert Ex Rel. Lambert v. Jones
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 38 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““As stated, whatever it was defendant undertook to do which it knew or should have known or foreseen would affect plaintiff’s safety, the defendant had the duty to do it carefully. Although defendant was not to be held liable in an action for the breach of the contract with the owners, a defendant, by entering into a contract, may place himself in such a relation toward third persons as to impose upon him an obligation to act in such a way that they will not be injured. * * * ””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“The contract is of interest to us because it shows what defendant undertook to do. Some of the things defendant undertook to do were such as might affect the safety of third persons, including plaintiff. And in doing the things which the defendant knew or should have known affecting the safety of third persons, defendant had a duty to such third persons to do carefully what it undertook to do.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““ * * * It is also ‘ancient learning that one who assumes to act, even though gratuitously, may thereby become subject to the duty of acting carefully, if he acts at all’ * * * ””
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.