Sutton v. Duke’s Empirical Analysis
1970
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 1,022 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,032 later decisions — most recently December 2025 · most notably 85 N.C. App. 669 - Harris v. NCNB National Bank of North Carolina (1987), Stanback v. Stanback (1979)
6 federal appellate · 1,022 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 Conley v. Gibson · Hayes v. City of Wilmington · Captain Tom Barber v. The Motor Vessel "Blue Cat", a 32' Catamaran, Her Engines, Apparel, Tackle and Equipment · De Loach v. Crowley's, Inc. · Bailey v. McGill
Cited together with 85 N.C. App. 669 - Harris v. NCNB National Bank of North Carolina · Oates v. Jag, Inc. · Jackson v. Bumgardner · Stanback v. Stanback · 147 N.C. App. 52 - Oberlin Capital, L.P. v. Slavin
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 1,032 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'[A] complaint should not be dismissed for insufficiency unless it appears to a certainty that plaintiff is entitled to no relief under any state of facts which could be proved in support of the claim.'”
35 later decisions quote this exact passage“A pleading complies with the rule if it gives sufficient notice of the events or transactions which produced the claim to enable the adverse party to understand the nature of it and the basis for it, to file a responsive pleading, and — by using the rules provided for obtaining pretrial discovery — to get any additional information he may need to prepare for trial.”
23 later decisions quote this exact passage“(1) A short and plain' statement of the claim sufficiently particular to give the court and the parties notice of the transactions, occurrences, or series of transactions or occurrences, intended to be proved showing that the pleader is entitled to relief, and (2) A demand for judgment for the relief to which he deems himself entitled.”
11 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.