Martello v. Hawley’s Empirical Analysis
300 F.2d 721 · 1962
Citation profile
54 federal appellate · 21 district · 41 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 124 later decisions — most recently February 2019 · most notably General Motors Corp. v. Lahocki (1980), Murray v. United States (1968)
54 federal appellate · 21 district · 41 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 Judson v. Peoples Bank & Trust Co. of Westfield · McKenna v. Austin · George's Radio, Inc. v. Capital Transit Co. · Knell v. Feltman
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 124 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[B]y his settlement, the plaintiff has sold one-half of his claim for damages. Anything else would be unfair to the settling tortfeasor, who has bought his peace, and unfair to the defendant tortfeasor, who should not be disadvantaged by a settlement to which he was not a party and to which he did not consent.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It should be noted that the question posed by this case is not easily answered. Involved are basic principles not readily susceptible of reconciliation with each other. Contribution is a right existing among joint tort-feasors based upon the theory that, as each tort-feasor was at fault in bringing about the injury to the innocent party, then in justice each tort-feasor should share his part in the burden of making the injured party whole again. Moreover, as there is no doctrine of comparative negli gence in the District of Columbia, there is much to be said for the proposition that this burden should be shared equally by those at fault. However, superimposed upon this theoretically equitable formula is the rule that an injured plaintiff may settle with one or more of the negligent tort-feasors without thereby surrendering the right to recover against the others. It is the friction engendered by the unavoidable interrelationship of these two principles in operation that gives cause for concern.” 300 F.2d at 723 .”
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.