Granfinanciera, S.A. v. Nordberg’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
598 federal appellate · 312 district · 93 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,428 later decisions (54 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably MARKMAN Et Al. v. WESTVIEW INSTRUMENTS, INC., Et Al. (1996), McCleskey v. Zant (1991)
598 federal appellate · 312 district · 93 state decisions — followed in 19 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
reviewedNordberg v. Granfinanciera, S.A. (from Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 11 U.S.C. § 541 · 11 U.S.C. § 548 · 28 U.S.C. § 1330 (§ 2 of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976) · 28 U.S.C. § 1411 · 28 U.S.C. § 157
Relies on Northern Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co. · Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody · Pepper v. Litton · Mistretta v. United States · Local Loan Co. v. Hunt
Cited together with Northern Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co. · Langenkamp v. Culp · Tull v. United States · Chauffeurs, Teamsters & Helpers Local No. 391 v. Terry · Curtis v. Loether
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 3,428 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“First, we compare the statutory action to 18th-century actions brought in the courts of England prior to the merger of the courts of law and equity. Second, we examine the remedy sought and determine whether it is legal or equitable in nature.”
253 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[B]y submitting a claim against the bankruptcy estate, creditors subject themselves to the court’s equitable power to disallow those claims, even though the debtor’s opposing counterclaims are legal in nature and the Seventh Amendment would have entitled creditors to a jury trial had they not tendered claims against the estate.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[ T]he restructuring of debtor-creditor relations, which is at the core of the federal bankruptcy power, must be distinguished from the adjudication of state created private rights, such as the right to recover contract damages that is at issue in this case. The former may well be a “public right,” but the latter obviously is not. Appellant Northern’s right to recover contract damages to augment its estate is “one of a private right, that is, of the liability of one individual to another under the law as defined.””
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.