Aretz v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 federal appellate · 4 state decisions

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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Workmen’s compensation liability arises out of a contract created by law and not out of any theory of tort, and such liability is not concerned with any negligence of the employer or the employee. Assuming for the sake of argument that the evidence showed that [the employer] was negligent and that such negligence combined naturally and proximately with that of the defendant to cause the injuries sued for, we think that the question boils down to whether [the employer] could be considered as not being a tort-feasor as to the plaintiff and yet be considered as a joint tort-feasor as to the defendants for the purpose of taking advantage of a payment of compensation under the workmen’s compensation law, as between its “joint tortfeasor,” [the employer], and the plaintiff [the injured employee]. We think not. Compensation paid under the act is not a settlement of a tort claim. Code § 114-103 [now Ga.Offl Code Ann. § 34-9-11] takes away from the employee any common-law right of action against the employer for injuries to the employee due to the negligence of the employer, and the legal effect of this fact is to eliminate completely the idea that the employer can be a common-law tort-feasor as to the employee. Therefore, there is no basis upon which the employer can be a joint tort-feasor with a third person as to an employee where both employer and employee are under the act....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 620 F. Supp. 558 - Hudson v. Union Carbide Corp.