Black Diamond Corporation v. Robert Stewart & Sons’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

115 federal appellate · 12 district · 7 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 239 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"Having decided that the case must be remanded because the petition was improperly dismissed, we turn to the question whether there are any circumstances under which the Belgian limitation would be enforceable by our courts. On this point we agree with the Court of Appeals—and disagree with the District Court — that if, indeed, the Belgian limitation attaches to the right, then nothing in The Titanic, 233 U.S. 718 [ 34 S.Ct. 754 , 58 L.Ed. 1171 ], stands in the way of observing that limitation. The Court in that case was dealing with `a liability assumed already to exist on other grounds.' Id. at 733 [ 34 S.Ct. 754 , 58 L.Ed. 1171 ]." Id.”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re the Complaint of the Bethlehem Steel Corp. · Carolina Floral Import, Inc. v. M. V. Eurypylus

2. ““ ‘Unless some proceeding of this kind were adopted which should bring all the parties interested into one litigation, and all the claimants into concourse for a pro rata distribution of the common fund, it is manifest that in most cases the benefits of the act could never be realized. Cases might occur, it is true, in which the shipowners could avail themselves of those benefits, by way of defence alone, as where both ship and freight are totally lost, so that the owners are relieved from all liability whatever. But even in that case, in the absence of a remedy by which they could obtain a decree of exemption as to all claimants, they would be liable to a diversity of suits, brought, perhaps, in different states, after long periods of time, when the witnesses have been dispersed, and issuing in contrary results before different tribunals; * * * >»”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 124 F. Supp. 540 - In re Wood

3. “Nor do we mean to imply that these apparently clear-cut alternatives are exhaustive. A limit which attaches not to an individual’s right of recovery but to the aggregate claims arising from a given tort can be said to be “attached to the right” only in a special sense of that phrase, and a rule which operates to cut down the amount recoverable by a claimant cannot be fitted within any but a very broad definition of the term “procedure.” Whether they are in fact considerations of domestic policy which deserve to be measured against application of the lex loci delicti and whether such considerations are as significant where the foreign limitation is lower than our own as where it is higher — these too are questions not now before us in view of the fact that the case is here merely on exceptions to the petition for limitation of liability.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 596 F. Supp. 1268 - In Re the Complaint of K.S. Line Corp.