Meyer v. Walls’s Empirical Analysis
1997
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 2 district · 273 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 304 later decisions — most recently August 2025 · most notably Craig Ex Rel. Craig v. New Hanover County Board of Education (2009), Corwin as Trustee for Beatrice Corwin Living Irrevocable Trust v. British American Tobacco PLC (2018)
3 federal appellate · 2 district · 273 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 Kentucky v. Graham · 85 N.C. App. 669 - Harris v. NCNB National Bank of North Carolina · Smith v. State · Guthrie v. North Carolina State Ports Authority · Teachy v. Coble Dairies, Inc.
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 304 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The crucial question for determining whether a defendant is sued in an individual or official capacity is the nature of the relief sought, not the nature of the act or omission alleged. If the plaintiff seeks an injunction requiring the defendant to take an action involving the exercise of a governmental power, the defendant is named in an official capacity. If money damages are sought, the court must ascertain whether the complaint indicates that the damages are sought from the government or from the pocket of the individual defendant. If the former, it is an official-capacity claim; if the latter, it is an individual-capacity claim; and if it is both, then the claims proceed in both capacities.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“`it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff could prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.'”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The essence of the doctrine of public official immunity is that public officials engaged in the performance of their governmental duties involving the exercise of judgment and discretion, and acting within the scope of their authority, may not be held liable for such actions, in the absence of malice or corruption.”
10 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.