Davis v. Aetna Acceptance Co.’s Empirical Analysis
293 U.S. 328 · 1934
Citation profile
127 federal appellate · 44 district · 73 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,616 later decisions (8 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2022 · most notably Brown III v. Felsen (1979), Kawaauhau v. Geiger (1998)
127 federal appellate · 44 district · 73 state decisions — followed in 20 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 Irving Trust Company v. Bowditch · Neal v. Clark · McIntyre v. Kavanaugh · Crawford v. Burke
Cited together with Irving Trust Company v. Bowditch · Grogan v. Garner · Kawaauhau v. Geiger · Upshur v. Briscoe · Gleason v. Thaw
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 1,616 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is not enough that, by the very act of wrongdoing out of which the contested debt arose, the bankrupt has become chargeable as a trustee ex maleficio. He must have been a trustee before the wrong and without reference thereto.”
70 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[A] willful and malicious injury does not follow as of course from every act of conversion, without reference to the circumstances. There may be a conversion which is innocent or technical, an unauthorized assumption of dominion without willfulness or malice. There may be an honest but mistaken belief, engendered by a course of dealing, that powers have been enlarged or incapacities removed. In these and like cases, what is done is a tort, but not a willful and malicious one.”
50 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“. . . by his fraud, embezzlement, misappropriation or defalcation while acting as an officer or in any fiduciary capacity”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.