United States v. Otter Tail Power Company’s Empirical Analysis
1971
Citation profile
23 federal appellate · 2 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 41 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 1993 · most notably Otter Tail Power Co. v. United States (1973), Aspen Highlands Skiing Corp. v. Aspen Skiing Co. (1984)
23 federal appellate · 2 district · 3 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
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 2 (§ 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act) · 15 U.S.C. § 4 (§ 4 of the Sherman Antitrust Act)
Relies on United States v. Grinnell Corp. · Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc. · Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. United States · United States v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. · American Tobacco Co. v. United States
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 41 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The efforts of Elbow Lake, Hankinson, Aurora and Colman, South Dakota, to establish municipal power systems were opposed by the defendant in court proceedings. Otter Tail either instituted or sponsored and financially supported court litigation which had the effect of frustrating the sale of revenue bonds to finance the municipal systems. A "no-litigation certificate," reflecting the absence of litigation which might impair the salability of revenue bonds, is essential to a successful sale of municipal bonds. The pendency of litigation has the effect of preventing the marketing of the necessary bonds thus preventing the establishment of a municipal system. Most of the litigation sponsored by the defendant was carried to the highest available appellate court and although all of it was unsuccessful on the merits, the institution and maintenance of it had the effect of halting, or appreciably slowing, efforts for municipal ownership. The delay thus occasioned and the large financial burden imposed on the towns' limited treasury dampened local enthusiasm for public ownership.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Webb v. Fury · Pike v. Gunyou“operation consists of an integrated power system running the full gamut from initial production to final sale of electrical power combined with pool arrangements which supply emergency power reserves.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“its purpose in refusing to deal with municipalities desiring to establish municipally owned systems is to protect itself in the position it now enjoys in the area.”
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.