Bowen v. United States Postal Service’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
255 federal appellate · 73 district · 75 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 665 later decisions (13 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2023 · most notably DelCostello v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters (1983), Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck (1985)
255 federal appellate · 73 district · 75 state decisions — followed in 18 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
reviewedBowen v. United States Postal Service (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Conley v. Gibson · United Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co. · Vaca v. Sipes · Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills of Ala. · United Steelworkers v. American Manufacturing 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 665 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“of paramount importance is the right of the [injured party] ... to be made whole”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage“The governing principle, then, is to apportion liability between the employer and the union according to the damage caused by the fault of each. Thus, damages attributable solely to the employer’s breach of contract should not be charged to the union, but increases if any in those damages caused by the union’s refusal to process the grievance should not be charged to the employer.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“an evolving federal common law grounded in national labor policy.”
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.