General American Tank Car Corporation v. El Dorado Terminal Co’s Empirical Analysis
308 U.S. 422 · 1940
Citation profile
196 federal appellate · 48 district · 64 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 564 later decisions (64 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2023 · most notably United States v. Western Pacific Railroad (1956), United States v. Philadelphia National Bank (1963)
196 federal appellate · 48 district · 64 state decisions — followed in 16 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
reviewedEl Dorado Terminal Co. v. General American Tank Car Corp. (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Great Northern Railway Co. v. Merchants Elevator Co. · Mitchell Coal Coke Company v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company · Pennsylvania Railroad Company v. Puritan Coal Mining Company · Ellis v. Interstate Commerce Commission
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 564 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“When it appeared in the course of the litigation that an administrative problem, committed to the Commission, was involved, the court should have stayed its hand pending the Commission's determination of the lawfulness and reasonableness of the practices under the terms of the Act.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The Commission may, after hearing, on a complaint or upon its own initiative without complaint, establish reasonable rules, regulations, and practices with respect to car service by common carriers by railroad subject to this chapter, including the compensation to be paid . . . for the use of any locomotive, car, or other vehicle not owned by the carrier using it (and whether or not owned by another carrier), and the penalties or other sanctions for nonobservance of such rules, regulations, or practices.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“entitled, under the plain terms of § 15(13), to be paid by the carrier a just and reasonable allowance . . . .”
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.