Levine v. Shell Oil Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1971
Citation profile
35 federal appellate · 3 district · 21 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 120 later decisions — most recently August 2015 · most notably Gibbs-Alfano v. Burton (2002), Doralee Estates, Inc. v. Cities Service Oil Co. (1977)
35 federal appellate · 3 district · 21 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 Thompson-Starrett Co. v. Otis Elevator Co. · Batson-Cook Co. v. Industrial Steel Erectors · Walters v. Rao Electrical Equipment Co. · Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Thornton Bros. Co. · Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Worden-Allen Co.
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 120 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Indemnification clauses have traditionally plagued both drafters and courts alike. Since one who is actively negligent has no right to indemnification unless he can point to a contractual provision granting him that right, a rule has evolved under which courts have carefully scrutinized these agreements for an expression of an intent to indemnify and for some indication of the scope of that indemnification. Thus we have said that “contracts will not be construed to indemnify a person against his own [active] negligence unless such intention is expressed in unequivocal terms[.]” This rule appears to be premised upon the view that where a person is under no legal duty to indemnify, his contract assuming that obligation must be strictly construed. Although we have no conceptual difficulty with such a rationale, we do question the judicial feasibility of a rule which allows a court to conclude that where a contract provides that indemnification will be for any and all liability, the parties must have meant something else. Thus courts — perhaps concerned with the notion that indem nification against active negligence leads to negligence by the indemnitee-have often searched for some specific reference to active negligence in the agreement[.]”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Lessee shall indemnify Shell against any and all claims, suits, loss, cost and liability on account of injury or death of persons or damage to property, or for liens on the premises, caused by or happening in connection with the premises (including the adjacent sidewalks and driveways) or the condition [,] maintenance, possession or use thereof or the operations thereon.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“all claims and demands ... of whatsoever kind or nature”
2 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.