Monsanto Company v. Spray-Rite Service Corporation’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
1,067 federal appellate · 399 district · 104 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,022 later decisions (46 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2025 · most notably Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. (1986), Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corporation (1986)
1,067 federal appellate · 399 district · 104 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
reviewedSpray-Rite Services Corp. v. Monsanto Co. (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 1 (§ 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act)
Relies on Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. · Continental Inc v. Gte Sylvania Incorporated · American Tobacco Co. v. United States · United States v. Colgate & Co.
Cited together with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corporation · Continental Inc v. Gte Sylvania Incorporated · Copperweld Corporation v. Independence Tube Corporation · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.
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 3,022 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“had a conscious commitment to a common scheme designed to achieve an unlawful objective.”
224 later decisions quote this exact passage“a showing that the distributor conformed to the suggested price. It means as well that evidence must be presented both that the distributor communicated its acquiescence or agreement, and that this was sought by the manufacturer.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“deter or penalize perfectly legitimate conduct”
7 later decisions 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.