United States v. Consumer Life Insurance Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
52 federal appellate · 19 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 159 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2009 · most notably Alabama Power Co. v. Costle (1979), Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Standard Life & Accident Insurance Company (1977)
52 federal appellate · 19 district · 2 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
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 1011 (§ 1 of the McCarran-Ferguson Act) · 26 U.S.C. § 801 · 26 U.S.C. § 831
Relies on Skidmore v. Swift & Co. · Udall v. Tallman · Gregory v. Helvering · Lucas v. Earl · Trafficante v. Metropolitan Life Insurance
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 159 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(a) Method of accounting. Subsection (a) of section 818, which is identical with the House bill, provides the general rule that all computations entering into the determination of taxes imposed by the new part I of subchapter L shall be made under an accrual method of accounting. This subsection further provides that, to the extent permitted under regulations prescribed by the Secretary or his delegate, a life insurance company may determine its taxes under a combination of an accrual method of accounting with any other method permitted by chapter 1 (other than the cash receipts and disbursements method). For example, the Secretary or his delegate may determine that the use of the installment method for reporting sales of realty and casual sales of personalty (see sec. 453(b)) may, in combination with an accrual method of accounting, properly reflect life insurance company taxable income. To the extent not inconsistent with the provision of the 1954 Code and an accrual method of accounting, all computations entering into the determination of taxes imposed by the new part I shall be made in a manner consistent with the manner required for purposes of the annual statement approved by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“We of course are called upon to apply the statute as it is written. Furthermore, the interpretation for which the Government contends “would have wide ramifications which we are not prepared to visit upon taxpayers, absent congressional guidance in this direction.” Commissioner v. Brown, 380 U.S. 563, 575 , 85 S.Ct. 1162 , 14 L.Ed.2d 75 (1965). If changes are thought necessary, that is Congress’ business.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“If) this accident and health business was more than 50 per cent of their business, as measured by their reserves, it could not be treated as a life insurance company. On the other hand, if their accident and health insurance were incidental and represented less than 50 per cent of their business we treated them as a life insurance company.”
1 later decision 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.