Erie Co v. Tompkinsās Empirical Analysis
304 U.S. 64 Ā· 1938
Citation profile
13,443 federal appellate Ā· 5,456 district Ā· 1,316 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 39,590 later decisions (642 by the Supreme Court) ā most recently June 2026 Ā· most notably United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs (1966), Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (1993)
13,443 federal appellate Ā· 5,456 district Ā· 1,316 state decisions ā followed in 49 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 ā not a real decline.
Appellate journey
reviewedTompkins v. Erie R. Co. (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Gunning v. Cooley Ā· Olson v. United States Ā· Messenger v. Anderson Ā· Myers v. United States
Cited together with Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Electric Manufacturing Co. Ā· Hanna v. Plumer Ā· West v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Ā· Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H Ā· Guaranty Trust Co. v. York
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each ā the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 39,590 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
ā[t]here is no federal general common law.ā
166 later decisions quote this exact passage Ā· from the majorityāThe laws of the several states, except where the Constitution or treaties of the United States or Acts of Congress otherwise require or provide, shall be regarded as rules of decision in civil actions in the courts of the United States, in cases where they apply.ā
30 later decisions quote this exact passage Ā· from the majorityā[T]he constitution of the United States . . . recognizes and preserves the autonomy and independence of the states,-independence in their legislative and independence in their judicial departments. Supervision over either the legislative or the judicial action of the states is in no case permissible except as to matters by the constitution specifically [sic] authorized or delegated to the United States. Any interference with either, except as thus permitted, is an invasion of the authority of the state, and, to that extent, a denial of its independence.ā
19 later decisions quote this exact passage Ā· from the majority
How later courts have treated this case
Across 46 classified citations ā whether each later court relied on, limited, or rejected this decision:
- 20followed
- 18explained
- 8cited without characterization
Treatment is classified from each citing court's own sentence. This is a running sample ā coverage grows as the classification pass proceeds; overrulings are also tracked authoritatively in the case status.