Wells v. Heath’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 2 district · 24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 34 later decisions — most recently May 2023 · most notably Jayel Corp. v. Cochran (2006), Spears v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Insurance (1987)
4 federal appellate · 2 district · 24 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 McCarroll, Commissioner of Revenues v. Farrar · Hastings v. Rose Courts · Benedict v. Arbor Acres Farm, Inc. · Equilease Corp. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. · Harris v. Moye's Estate
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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The doctrine of res judicata is accepted as a rule of inflexible absolute law in practically every jurisdiction. If the judgment is entitled to res judicata, it is conclusive as to the cause of action involved no matter how “unfair” or “patently erroneous” it may now seem to the court examining the judgment. 65 Harv. L.R. 818. There must be an end to litigation at some point; and, if there has been one fair trial on the merits of a case, that is all that is required.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Hurst v. Rice
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.