Chan v. Korean Air Lines, Ltd.’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
208 federal appellate · 58 district · 25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 646 later decisions (13 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2025 · most notably Eastern Airlines, Inc. v. Floyd (1991), McCarthy v. Northwest Airlines, Inc. (1995)
208 federal appellate · 58 district · 25 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedIn re Korean Air Lines Disaster of September 1, 1983 (from District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1292 · 28 U.S.C. § 1407
Relies on Gideon v. Wainwright · B.D. International Discount Corp. v. Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A. · Logarusic v. United States · Air France v. Saks · Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft v. Schlunk
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 646 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'[T]o alter, amend, or add to any treaty by inserting any clause, whether small or great, important or trivial, would be ... to make, and not to construe a treaty'”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[I]f the air waybill does not contain all the particulars set out in article 8(a) to (i), inclusive, and (q), the carrier shall not be entitled to avail himself of the provisions of this convention which exclude or limit his liability.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[W]here the text is clear ... we have no power to insert an amendment.”
5 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.