Wachtel’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 district · 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 36 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[A] person is' a fiduciary with ’ respect to a plan to the extent (i) he exercises any discretionary authority or discretionary control respecting management of such plan or exercises any authority or control respecting management or disposition of its assets, (ii) he renders investment advice for a fee or other compensation, direct or indirect, with respect to any moneys or other property of such plan, or has any authority or responsibility to do so, or (iii) he has any discretionary authority or discretionary responsibility in the administration of such plan.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield v. East Brunswick Surgery Center · 173 F. Supp. 3d 1061 - A.F. v. Providence Health Plan

2. “[B]ecause the purpose of the privilege is to promote the dissemination of sound legal advice, the privilege will extend only to advice which is legal in nature. Where a lawyer provides non-legal business advice, the communication is not privileged.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Burrow v. Forjas Taurus S.A. & Braztech Int'l, L.C. · Harrington v. Freedom of Information Commission

3. “Health Net of New Jersey, Inc. (HN-NJ) sells and maintains health insurance policies for employee benefit plans. The company offers a variety of policies, covering services by health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, and point-of-service policies. HN-NJ is a subsidiary of Health Net of the Northeast, Inc. (HN-NE). Health Net, Inc. (HNI) is the corporate parent not only of HN-NJ and HN-NE but also of other subsidiary insurance companies that provide medical benefits to participants in benefit plans established under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq. Although certain policy formulation and administrative services are shared among the Health Net companies, a subsidiary is responsible for deciding claims in accordance with these policies and for paying claims to participants from the subsidiary’s assets. HNI and its subsidiaries do not hold or manage the assets of their customer benefit plans. Rather, the Health Net subsidiaries sell insurance policies to the plans. When a plan beneficiary submits a claim, the subsidiary will process the claim and, if appropriate, pay the beneficiary from the subsidiary's own funds. Similarly, when HNI or any of the subsidiaries obtains legal advice, counsel is paid from HNI’s or the subsidiary’s funds. Neither HNI nor any of the subsidiaries is a plan administrator or trustee for any of the benefit plans. The plaintiffs are beneficiaries of two different employee benefit plan”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Harvey v. Standard Insurance