Owens v. White’s Empirical Analysis
342 F.2d 817 · 1965
Citation profile
7 federal appellate · 2 district · 14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently November 2017
7 federal appellate · 2 district · 14 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 116 Cal. App. 2d 445 - Costa v. Regents of University of California · 161 Cal. App. 2d 800 - Hundley v. St. Francis Hospital · 125 Cal. App. 2d 399 - Myers v. Stevenson · Seitz v. Jones · Billings v. Sisters of Mercy of Idaho
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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Consistent with the prominence given to the policy underlying statutes of limitations in Billings, supra, we believe the Idaho court would temper application of the discovery doctrine by hedging it with equitable considerations. To illustrate, courts in other states that have applied the discovery doctrine to non-foreign object cases have emphasized factors such as the `continuing relationship' between doctor and patient as a reason for applying the rule. [Citing cases.] This suggests in our estimation, that the discovery doctrine is itself subject to some restraint as the time from the occurrence of the malpractice grows greater. In such circumstances, the considerations of fairness to the defendant underlying statutes of limitation become more insistent, while the plaintiff's appeals to equity implicit in the discovery doctrine become less so. We believe the Idaho courts would apply a concept akin to the equitable doctrine of laches to limit the discovery rule, a rule which itself has its genesis in equity. Thus, the suit of a plaintiff who is reasonably diligent may be barred if the defendant shows undue prejudice because of an extreme lapse of time between the commission of the wrongful act and the commencement of suit. To so conclude strikes us as a reasonable accommodation between the competing considerations noted in Billings of giving full scope to the statute of limitations on the one hand and according a reasonable measure of justice to the plaintiff on the other.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is perhaps also true that the claim in a suit involving a foreign object as in Billings [Billings v. Sisters of Mercy of Idaho, 86 Idaho 485 , 389 P. 2d 224 ] is more apt to be bona fide than one which will undoubtedly depend upon testimony or other indirect evidence for proof. But this factual difference is not controlling. It merely relates to the manner of proof. Grant, that the possibility of fraud is increased in the latter instance. But plainly, the possibility does not remotely approach the point where possibility becomes probability and hence a decisive reason for cutting off the claim. The usual presumption is that a person submits a claim in good faith. To conclude otherwise requires a resort to speculation and reliance upon suspicion. In addition, the burden of establishing a claim rests upon the plaintiff, and the stale nature of the evidence cuts two ways, militating against him as well as the defendant.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. MORAN v. Napolitano“and like all issues of law must be resolved by the court even though this will require evidence.”
1 later decision 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.