Helvering v. Le Gierse’s Empirical Analysis
312 U.S. 531 · 1941
Citation profile
151 federal appellate · 15 district · 75 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 453 later decisions (17 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2022 · most notably 21 Cal. 4th 28 - Cates Construction, Inc. v. Talbot Partners (1999), Securities and Exchange Commission v. United Benefit Life Insurance Company (1967)
151 federal appellate · 15 district · 75 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
reviewedCommissioner v. Le Gierse (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Ritter v. Mutual Life Ins Co of New York · Legg v. St. John · Pearson v. McGraw · Helvering v. McIlvaine
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 453 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[h]istorically and commonly insurance involves risk-shifting and risk-distributing.”
17 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[A]nnuities and insurance are opposites; in combination the one neutralizes the risk customarily inherent in the other ... insurance looks to longevity, annuity to transiency.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * Any risk that the prepayment would earn less than the amount paid to respondent as an annuity was an investment risk similar to the risk assumed by a bank; it was not an insurance risk as explained above. * * * ””
5 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.