Houle v. Low’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 8 district · 65 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 82 later decisions — most recently July 2024 · most notably Demoulas v. Demoulas Super Markets, Inc. (1997), Starr v. Fordham (1995)
4 federal appellate · 8 district · 65 state decisions — followed in 13 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
Relies on Truong Dinh Hung v. United States · Pederson v. Time, Inc. · Lister v. United States · Auerbach v. Bennett · Donahue v. Rodd Electrotype Co. of New England, 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 82 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The value of a special litigation committee is coextensive with the extent to which that committee truly exercises business judgment. In order to ensure that special litigation committees do act for the corporation’s best interest, a good deal of judicial oversight is necessary in each case. At the same time, however, courts must be careful not to usurp the committee’s valuable role in exercising business judgment. At a minimum, a special litigation committee must be independent, unbiased, and act in good faith. Moreover, such a committee must conduct a thorough and careful analysis regarding the plaintiffs derivative suit. . . The burden of proving that these procedural requirements have been met must rest, in all fairness, on the party capable of making that proof — the corporation.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“The judge must determine, on the basis of the evidence presented, whether the committee reached a reasonable and principled decision.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[W]e must be mindful that directors are passing judgment on fellow directors in the same corporation and fellow directors, in the same instance, who designated them to serve both as directors and committee members. The question naturally arises whether a "there but for the grace of God go I" empathy might not play a role. And the further question arises whether inquiry as to independence, good faith and reasonable investigation is sufficient safeguard against abuse, perhaps subconscious abuse.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.