Foman v. Davis’s Empirical Analysis
1962
Citation profile
3,889 federal appellate · 3,527 district · 903 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 19,243 later decisions (47 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2025 · most notably Schlup v. Delo (1995), Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc. (1971)
3,889 federal appellate · 3,527 district · 903 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedLenore Foman v. Elvira A. Davis (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Conley v. Gibson · Burlington Truck Lines, Inc. v. United States · Lenore Foman v. Elvira A. Davis
Cited together with Conley v. Gibson · Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc. · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · Torres v. Oakland Scavenger Co.
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 19,243 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“shall be freely given when justice so requires.”
1,224 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Although Rule 12(b), MRCP provides that upon dismissal for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, leave to amend shall be granted in accordance with Rule 15(a), the grant of leave to amend under Rule 12 and Rule 15 is left to the trial judge's sound discretion and leave to amend may be denied where it appears certain that plaintiff cannot state a claim showing that he is entitled to relief or that any amendment would be futile. [Citation to Simmons . ]”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“A motion to alter or amend the judgment shall be served not later than 10 days after entry of the judgment”
3 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.