Nachman Corp. v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
614 federal appellate · 235 district · 54 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,712 later decisions (61 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2023 · most notably Firestone Tire and Rubber Company v. Bruch (1989), Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Cardoza-Fonseca (1987)
614 federal appellate · 235 district · 54 state decisions — followed in 17 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 1001 (§ 2 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1002 (§ 3 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1053 (§ 203 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1061 (§ 211 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1201 (§ 3001 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1301 (§ 4001 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1302 (§ 4002 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1304 (§ 4004 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974)
Relies on Williamson v. Lee Optical of Oklahoma, Inc. · Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co. · United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · Allied Structural Steel Company v. Spannaus
Cited together with Alessi v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc. · Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance v. Russell · Firestone Tire and Rubber Company v. Bruch · Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc. · Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation v. RA Gray & 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 1,712 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“to prevent the 'great personal tragedy' suffered by employees whose vested benefits are not paid when pension plans are terminated.”
42 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“to encourage the continuation and maintenance of voluntary private pension plans " and "to provide for the timely and uninterrupted payment of pension benefits ... under plans " (emphasis added)); id. § 1303(a) (mandating that the PBGC audit annually a "statistically significant number of plans”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he statutory definition of 'nonforfeitable' assures that an employee's claim to the protected benefit is legally enforceable, but it does not guarantee a particular amount or a method for calculating the benefit.... '[I]t is the claim to the benefit, rather than the benefit itself, that must be”
6 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.