Smith v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1979
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 4 district · 32 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 44 later decisions — most recently June 2018 · most notably 97 Ill. 2d 104 - Coney v. J. L. G. Industries, Inc. (1983), George BAILEY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Y & O PRESS COMPANY, INC., Defendant-Appellee (1985)
4 federal appellate · 4 district · 32 state decisions — followed in 18 states
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 20 Cal. 3d 725 - Daly v. General Motors Corp. · West v. Caterpillar Tractor Company, Inc. · General Motors Corp. v. Hopkins · 63 Wis. 2d 728 - Schuh v. Fox River Tractor Co. · Busch v. Busch Construction, Inc.
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 44 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“I would further hold that in the State of South Dakota under a given set of facts that: (a) the classical negligence defenses are not available in the defense of a strict liability case. The judicially created tort of strict liability is not founded in negligence; (b) inasmuch as the strict liability theory is not based on negligence, that contributory negligence cannot be interposed as a defense; (c) although South Dakota has the comparative negligence doctrine, which is akin to the comparative fault theory now adopted by California and Alaska to reduce a plaintiff's recovery, this is not available as a defense in a strict liability action; and (d) "contributory fault" is just another way of saying "contributory negligence" and should not be available as a defense to a case founded on strict liability.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[Wjere we to adopt comparative negligence as a defense to strict liability cases ... we would be placing a burden upon a jury that was highly arithmetic, if not algebraic, and justice for the parties would be lost in a world of technical wonderment. Furthermore, comparative negligence, if applied as a defense, literally eats away, consumes, and destroys the basic purpose of strict liability.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“A manufacturer or distributor or retailer should not be at the mercy of a fool. So, lest it be considered that they are under a legal handicap by elimination of the classical negligence defenses, contributory negligence, comparative negligence or comparative fault defenses, these target defendants can plead and prove assumption of the risk or misuse of the product.”
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.