Melvin T. Smith v. Ferron C. Losee’s Empirical Analysis
485 F.2d 334 · 1973
Citation profile
71 federal appellate · 17 district · 12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 118 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2007 · most notably Wood v. Strickland (1975), Hostrop v. Board of Junior College District No. 515 (1975)
71 federal appellate · 17 district · 12 state decisions
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.
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. · Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Ex Parte: Edward T Young · Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District 205 Will County Illinois
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 118 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A qualified privilege] may be asserted as a matter of defense, but it is “qualified” in that proof to support the defense is required. This proof is often lack of malice, or good faith, or some similar showing of good and proper cause for the act complained of. If such a defense can be established during the course of the trial, the jury or judge must then find for the defendant. This qualified privilege thus does not meet that element of the purpose of the [official immunity] rule that the official should not be required to expend time in the defense of litigation brought against him, but it is in accord with the other elements. Id. at 342 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Eide v. Timberlake“Judges (and) executive officers with discretionary functions . . . have been held absolutely immune . . ..”
1 later decision 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.