Alford v. Shaw’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 50 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 55 later decisions — most recently October 2025 · most notably Spiegel v. Buntrock (1990), Houle v. Low (1990)
3 federal appellate · 50 state decisions — followed in 10 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.
Relationships
Relies on Auerbach v. Bennett · Zapata Corp. v. Maldonado · 39 N.C. App. 77 - Swenson v. Thibaut · Investment Properties of Asheville, Inc. v. Allen · Clary v. Alexander County Board of Education
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 55 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“1. [T]he modified Zapata rule of law adopted by our Supreme Court, opinion by Martin, J., is really a G.S. 55-55(c) inspired overlay on the Rules of Civil Procedure interposed, as a hybrid, somewhere between Rule 12(b) and Rule 56, in which the Court, in its discretion and using it [sic] own “business judgment”, decides whether or not the derivative suit should proceed to jury trial. Since the complaint, as in 12(b) motions, and matters outside the complaint, Rule 56, are considered, the procedure is not unlike a probable cause hearing in a criminal case except the burden of proof is on the defendant. 2. [A] fortiorari [sic], the rule requires a judicial assessment of the “report of the special committee, along with all the other facts and circumstances in the case” to determine in its discretion, applying its own independent business judgment, whether or not the “defendants will be able to show that the transaction......was just and reasonable to the corporation;” and, if the Court does not so find, the case can be dismissed if the “amount of the recovery would not be sufficient to outweigh the detriment to the corporation,” i.e. “it would still not be in the best interest of the corporation to pursue the derivative action.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“[Jjudicial scrutiny of the merits of a litigation committee’s recommendation, is most consistent with the intent of our legislature and is therefore the appropriate rule to be applied in our courts.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“[a]n equitable exception to the demand requirement may be invoked when the directors who are in control of the corporation are the same ones (or under the control of the same ones) as were initially responsible for the breaches of duty alleged. In such case, the demand of a shareholder upon directors to sue themselves or their principals would be futile and as such is not required for the maintenance of the action.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.