Travelers Protective Ass'n of America v. Prinsen’s Empirical Analysis
291 U.S. 576 · 1934
Citation profile
39 federal appellate · 6 district · 15 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 72 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2001 · most notably Coverdale v. Arkansas-Louisiana Pipe Line Co. (1938), MacAlco, Inc. v. Gulf Insurance Co. (1977)
39 federal appellate · 6 district · 15 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedPrinsen v. Travelers' Protective Ass'n (from Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Cudahy Packing Co of Nebraska v. Parramore · Voehl v. Indemnity Ins Co of North America · Bountiful Brick Co. v. Giles · Bennett v. Railroad Co. · Matter of Met. Life Ins. Co. v. Conway
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 72 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The contract does not say that the holder of the policy is to have no claim against the insurer if he dies `by reason of' his participation in the carriage of explosives. The contract says that he is to have no claim against the insurer if he dies `when' he is participating in the carriage of explosives, just as it provides for a like result when he is acting as a sailor or a soldier, or is participating in war or riot, or is under the influence of narcotics or of intoxicating liquors. Courts of high authority have held that in policies so phrased there is no need of any causal nexus between the injury or death and the forbidden forms of conduct. While the proscribed activity continues, the insurance is suspended as if it had never been in force.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“By reasonable implication, the return trip as well as the outward one was within the orbit of the errand.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Weida v. MacDougall
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.