KOTWASINSKI v. RASNER’s Empirical Analysis
1969
Citation profile
8 federal appellate · 115 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 125 later decisions — most recently November 2013 · most notably Thompson Coal Co. v. Pike Coal Co. (1979), Consumer Party of Pennsylvania v. Com. (1986)
8 federal appellate · 115 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 Perry v. Payne · Dilks v. Flohr Chevrolet · Employers Liability Assurance Corp. v. Greenville Business Men's Ass'n · Galligan v. Arovitch · Morton v. Ambridge Borough
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 125 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(1) contracts providing for immunity from liability for negligence must be construed strictly since they are not favorites of the law . . . ; (2) such contracts ‘must spell out the intention of the parties with the greatest of particularity’ . . . and show the intent to release from liability ‘beyond doubt by express stipulation’ and ‘[n]o inference from words of general import can establish it’ . (3) such contracts must be construed with every intendment against the party who seeks the immunity from liability ... (4) the burden to establish immunity from liability is upon the party who asserts such immunity . . . . [Citations omitted.] Employers L.A.C. v. Greenville B. Men’s A., supra, 423 Pa. at 292-93 , 224 A.2d at 623 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““Generally speaking, an exculpatory clause is valid if: (a) ‘it does not contravene any policy of the law, that is, if it is not a matter of interest to the public or State. . . . ’ [citations omitted]; (b) ‘the contract is between persons relating entirely to their own private affairs’ [citations omitted]; (c) ‘each party is a free bargaining agent’ and the clause is not in effect ‘a mere contract of adhesion, whereby [one party] simply adheres to a document which he is powerless to alter, having no alternative other than to reject the transaction entirely’ [citations omitted].” Employers Liability Assurance Corporation v. Greenville Business Men’s Association, 423 Pa. 288, 291-292 , 224 A. 2d 620, 622-623 (1966).”
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.