Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp.’s Empirical Analysis
337 U.S. 541 · 1949
Citation profile
11,038 federal appellate · 365 district · 1,627 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22,577 later decisions (262 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Ashcroft v. Iqbal (2009), Brady v. State of Maryland (1963)
11,038 federal appellate · 365 district · 1,627 state decisions — followed in 47 states
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.
Appellate journey
reviewedBeneficial Industrial Loan Corp. v. Smith (from Third Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Erie Co v. Tompkins · Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Electric Manufacturing Co. · Guaranty Trust Co. v. York · Cobbledick v. United States
Cited together with Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay · Abney v. United States · Mitchell v. Forsyth · Catlin v. United States · Cobbledick 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 22,577 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“finally determine claims of right separable from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated.”
625 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Equity came to the relief of the stockholder, who had no standing to bring civil action at law against faithless directors and managers. Equity, however, allowed him to step into the corporation's shoes and to seek in its right the restitution he could not demand in his own. It required him first to demand that the corporation vindicate its own rights but when, as was usual, those who perpetrated the wrongs also were able to obstruct any remedy, equity would hear and adjudge the corporation's cause through its stockholder with the corporation as a defendant, albeit a rather nominal one. This remedy born of stockholder helplessness was long the chief regulator of corporate management and has afforded no small incentive to avoid at least grosser forms of betrayal of stockholders' interests. It is argued, and not without reason, that without it there would be little practical check on such abuses.”
46 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““§ 1321. Plaintiff must be shareholder. In any suit brought to enforce a secondary right on the part of one or more shareholders against any officer, or director, or former officer or director of a corporation, domestic or foreign, because such corporation refuses to enforce rights which may properly be asserted by it, the plaintiff or plaintiffs must aver and it must be made to appear, that the plaintiff or each plaintiff was a stockholder at the time of the transaction of which he complains, or that his stock devolved upon him by operation of law from a person who was a stockholder at such time.” “§ 1323. Assessment of costs. The reasonable expenses, including attorneys’ fees, of any party defendant incurred in connection with the successful defense of such suit shall be assessed upon the corporation, or if any party defendant shall be successful in part only, or if such action shall be settled with the approval of the court having jurisdiction thereof, the reasonable costs, including attorneys’ fees, of any such party defendant shall be assessed upon the corporation in such amount as the court shall determine and find to be reasonable in the circumstances. The amount of all such expenses so assessed shall be awarded as costs of the suit and be recoverable in the same manner as statutory taxable costs.””
14 later decisions 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.