New York Life Ins Co v. Viglas’s Empirical Analysis
297 U.S. 672 · 1936
Citation profile
121 federal appellate · 28 district · 80 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 350 later decisions (14 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2018 · most notably Snyder v. Harris (1969), Ricketts v. Adamson (1987)
121 federal appellate · 28 district · 80 state decisions — followed in 21 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedViglas v. New York Life Ins. (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Roehm v. Horst · Norrington v. Wright · Pierce v. Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad · Dingley v. Oler
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 350 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Repudiation there was none as the term is known to the law. Petitioner did not disclaim the intention or the duty to shape its conduct in accordance with the provisions of the contract. Far from repudiating those provisions, it appealed to their authority and endeavored to apply them____There is nothing to show that the insurer was not acting in good faith in giving notice of its contention that the disability was over.... If it made a mistake, there was a breach of a provision of the policy with liability for any damages appropriate thereto.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““For breach short of repudiation or an intentional abandonment equivalent thereto, the damages under such a policy as this do not exceed the benefits in default at the commencement of the suit.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Strictly, an 'anticipatory breach’ of a contract is one committed before the time has come at which there is a present duty of performance, and it is the outcome of words or acts evincing an intention to refuse performance in the future. An essential element of a true anticipatory breach of a contract is that the repudiation or renunciation by the promisor occur before his performance is due under the contract.””
2 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.