Protective Life Insurance v. Sullivan’s Empirical Analysis
1997
Citation profile
15 federal appellate · 22 district · 64 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 107 later decisions — most recently January 2025 · most notably American United Life Insurance v. Martinez (2007), Carey v. New England Organ Bank (2006)
15 federal appellate · 22 district · 64 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 United States v. Virginia · Klein v. Catalano · Friedman v. Jablonski · Answer of the Justices to the Senate · McGuinness v. Cotter
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 107 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“equitable tolling is applicable only where the prospective plaintiff did not have, and could not have had with due diligence, the information essential to bringing suit.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“The purpose of G.L.c. 175, §124 (based on the commissioner’s recommendation), was to curb perceived unfair practices by insurance companies, by making it even more difficult for them to contest life insurance policies issued without medical examinations than it was to contest life insurance policies issued with medical examinations. We conclude, therefore, that the effect of G.L.c. 175, §124, when read together with the later enacted §132 (see St. 1907, c. 576, §75), is to increase the insurers’ burden of proof when it attempts to rescind, within two years, life insurance policies issued without medical examinations. Neither the purpose nor the effect of G.L.c. 175, §124, was to create a fraud exception to the later enacted incontestability statute.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““In any claim arising under a policy issued in the commonwealth by any life company, without previous medical examination ... the statements made in the application as to the age, physical condition and family history of the insured shall be held to be valid and binding on the company; but the company shall not be debarred from proving as a defense to such claim that said statements were wilfully false, fraudulent or misleading.””
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.