Melina v. Chaplin’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 1 district · 63 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 71 later decisions — most recently November 2018 · most notably Balder v. Haley (1987), Schaub v. VonWald (2011)
6 federal appellate · 1 district · 63 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 21 Cal. 3d 910 - Neal v. Farmers Insurance Exchange · Stuempges v. Parke, Davis & Co. · Carpenter v. Mattison · Kaehler v. Kaehler · Louden v. Louden
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 71 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The purpose of punitive damages is to both punish and deter according to the gravity of the act giving rise to a punitive damage award, but an award should not exceed the level necessary to properly punish and deter.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“[i]n reviewing an order of the trial court, we are confined to an examination of the record to ascertain whether there is evidence to sustain the judge's action.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Some members of this court question whether the punitive damage award here was excessive. Had there been any evidence furnished to the jury or the court reflecting on Chaplin’s lack of ability to pay, we might well have remanded for a new trial or remittitur.”
1 later decision 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.