Cousins v. Dennis’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 33 later decisions — most recently December 2014 · most notably Doe v. Baum (2002), Hercules Inc. v. Pledger (1995)
4 federal appellate · 19 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 v. Sanford · Matthews v. Martin · Ragland v. Alpha Aviation, Inc. · City of Fort Smith v. Brewer · Guajardo v. Neece
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 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Appellants also presented a theory of negligence. The issue of negligence was raised in appellants’jurisdictional statement, but the issue of recovery on the basis of negligence giving rise to liability for a tort was not raised in either of appellant’s points on appeal or in the argument section of their brief. Appellants do not appear to contest the grant of summary judgment with respect to the allegation of negligence. Had appellants pursued the theory of recovery of damages for tort liability under a claim of negligence, they would not have prevailed because of appellees’ sovereign immunity. Under Ark. Code Ann. § 21-9-301 [i]t is declared to be the public policy of the State of Arkansas that all... school districts... shall be immune from [tort] liability and from suit for damages except to the extent that they may be covered by liability insurance. No tort action shall lie against any such political subdivision because of the acts of its agents and employees.” Id.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage“In construing 21-9-303(a), it is tempting to conclude that since the General Assembly failed to mention the vehicle registration statutes, those registration laws do not apply and, thus, a political subdivision should insure every motor vehicle it owns, registered or not. Such a construction would be erroneous for several reasons. One reason is that the language in 21~9-303(a) specifically refers to the entire Motor Vehicle Responsibility Act, which, as we previously have discussed, relies, in turn, upon Arkansas’s vehicle registration and licensing laws. Another, and more important reason, is if Arkansas’s vehicle registration laws are not considered when construing 21-9-303(a), absurd results would be reached. For example, if we limited the construction of 21-9-303(a) to require political subdivisions to carry liability insurance on all motor vehicles meeting the definition found in 27-19-206, a self-propelling riding lawn mower would qualify, thereby requiring the school district to include its mowers under liability coverage. This same rationale would include any self-propelled vehicle even though it is not designed or used primarily for transportation of persons or property. If we were to construe 21-9-303(a) without considering all relevant provisions of Arkansas’s vehicle registration laws and Motor Vehicle Responsibility Act, another absurdity would arise by requiring political subdivisions to acquire liability insurance coverage on vehicles, which no one else in the ”
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.