Watkins v. Hellings’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 42 later decisions — most recently May 2017 · most notably Mullis v. Sechrest (1998), 142 N.C. App. 18 - Evans v. United Services Automobile Ass'n (2001)
42 state decisions
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 Dickinson v. Pake · Davis Ex Rel. Allen v. Rigsby · Estrada v. Burnham · Dinkins v. Carlton · Samuels v. Bowers
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 42 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In cases involving the issue of the contributory negligence of a passenger for agreeing to ride in an automobile operated by an intoxicated person, the elements to be proved are: “(1) the driver was under the influence of an intoxicating beverage; (2) the passenger knew or should have known that the driver was under the influence . . . ; and (3) the passenger voluntarily rode with the driver even though the passenger knew or should have known that the driver was under the influence.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“It has been held repeatedly by this Court that '[w]hen the trial court is not required to find facts and make conclusions of law and does not do so, it is presumed that the court on proper evidence found facts to support its judgment.'”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“whether to make a finding of fact if a party does not choose to compel a finding through the simple mechanism of so requesting.”
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.