State v. Markowitz’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “in order to hold a corporate stockholder, officer or employee personally liable under the Navigation Law for a discharge occurring at a site owned or operated by the corporation, that individual must, at a minimum, have been directly, actively and knowingly involved in the culpable activities or inaction which led to a spill or which allowed a spill to continue unabated. In our view, this standard of liability strikes the appropriate balance between holding only culpable individuals personally liable for wrongful corporate activities leading to a discharge and protecting those individual stockholders and officers who remain uninvolved in corporate wrongdoing who are entitled to rely on the corporate form to insulate them from personal liability. Thus, we hold that in order to impose such personal liability on stockholders or officers under Navigation Law § 181(1), active wrongful conduct or culpable inaction must be established.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Booth Oil Site Administrative Group v. Safety-Kleen Corp.