United States v. Western Pacific Railroad’s Empirical Analysis
1956
Citation profile
957 federal appellate · 446 district · 678 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,564 later decisions (66 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2024 · most notably United States v. Philadelphia National Bank (1963), United Mine Workers of America v. M Pennington Local Union No 189 Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America (1965)
957 federal appellate · 446 district · 678 state decisions — followed in 42 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.
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1491 · 28 U.S.C. § 2501
Relies on Texas Pacific Railway Company v. Abilene Cotton Oil Company · Far East Conference v. United States · Great Northern Railway Co. v. Merchants Elevator Co. · General American Tank Car Corporation v. El Dorado Terminal Co
Cited together with Far East Conference v. United States · Texas Pacific Railway Company v. Abilene Cotton Oil Company · Nader v. Allegheny Airlines, Inc. · Reiter v. Cooper · Ricci v. Chicago Mercantile Exchange
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 3,564 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“applies where a claim is cognizable in the first instance by an administrative agency alone; judicial interference is withheld until the administrative process has run its course.”
291 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Whenever a rate, rule, or practice is attacked as unreasonable or as unjustly discriminatory, there must be preliminary resort to the Commission. * * * It is required because the inquiry is essentially one of fact and of discretion in technical matters; and uniformity can be secured only if its determination is left to the Commission. Moreover, that determination is reached ordinarily upon voluminous and conflicting evidence, for the adequate appreciation of which acquaintance with many intricate facts of transportation is indispensable, and such acquaintance is commonly to be found only in a body of experts.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“To use the statute of limitations to cut off the consideration of a particular defense in the case is quite foreign to the policy of preventing the commencement of stale litigation.”
15 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.