Yearsley v. W. A. Ross Construction Co.’s Empirical Analysis
309 U.S. 18 · 1940
Citation profile
229 federal appellate · 87 district · 126 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 743 later decisions (35 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2026 · most notably Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City (1985), Larson v. Domestic & Foreign Commerce Corp. (1949)
229 federal appellate · 87 district · 126 state decisions — followed in 18 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
reviewedW. A. Ross Const. Co. v. Yearsley (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Lee · Philadelphia Co. v. Stimson · John Den James Murray and John Kayser v. The Hoboken Land and Improvement Company John Den James B Murray et al. · United States v. Arthur Lynah
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 743 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'there is no liability on the part of the contractor' who simply performed as the Government directed.”
29 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“pursuant to a contract with the United States Government, and under the direction of the Secretary of War and the supervision of the Chief of Engineers of the United States.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“using large boats with paddles and pumps to produce artificial erosion, had washed away a part of petitioners' land.”
1 later decision 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.