Brooks v. Powers’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 state decisions

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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “With respect to the identifiable victim element, we note that this exception applies not only to identifiable individuals but also to narrowly defined identified classes of foreseeable victims .... [W]hether a particular plaintiff comes within a cognizable class of foreseeable victims for purposes of this narrowly drawn exception to qualified immunity ultimately is a question of law for the courts, in that it is in effect a question of whether to impose a duty of care .... In delineating the scope of a foreseeable class of victims exception to governmental immunity, our courts have considered numerous criteria, including the imminency of any potential harm, the likelihood that harm will result from a failure to act with reasonable care, and the identifiability of the particular victim .... Other courts, in carving out similar exceptions to their respective doctrines of governmental immunity, have also considered whether the legislature specifically designated an identifiable subclass as the intended beneficiaries of certain acts ... whether the relationship was of a voluntary nature ... the seriousness of the injury threatened ... the duration of the threat of injury ... and whether the persons at risk had the opportunity to protect themselves from harm.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 186 Conn. App. 466 - Perez v. Metropolitan District Commisssion

2. “Municipal officials are immune from liability for negligence arising out of their discretionary acts in part because of the danger that a more expansive exposure to liability would cramp the exercise of official discretion beyond the limits desirable in our society.... [D]iscretionary act immunity reflects a value judgment that-despite injury to a member of the public-the broader interest in having government officials and employees free to exercise judgment and discretion in their official functions, unhampered by fear of second-guessing and retaliatory lawsuits, outweighs the benefits to be had from imposing liability for that injury.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Ventura v. Town of E. Haven

3. “when the circumstances make it apparent to [a public official] that his or her failure to act would be likely to subject an identifiable person to imminent harm .... By its own terms, this test requires three things: (1) an imminent harm; (2) an identifiable victim; and (3) a public official to whom it is apparent that his or her conduct is likely to subject that victim to that harm .... If the [plaintiff] fail[s] to establish any one of the three prongs, this failure will be fatal to [her] claim that [she] come[s] within the imminent harm exception.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 186 Conn. App. 466 - Perez v. Metropolitan District Commisssion