LOCKHEED CORP. Et Al. v. SPINK’s Empirical Analysis
1996
Citation profile
315 federal appellate · 157 district · 12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 989 later decisions (12 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2023 · most notably Pegram v. Herdrich (2000), Black & Decker Disability Plan v. Nord (2003)
315 federal appellate · 157 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedSpink v. Lockheed Corp. (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc. · Morales v. Trans World Airlines, Inc. · Mertens v. Hewitt Associates · United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · Alessi v. Raybestos-Manhattan, 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 989 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[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.”
24 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[p]lan sponsors who alter the terms of a plan do not fall into the category of fiduciaries”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[n]othing in ERISA requires employers to establish employee benefits plans. Nor does ERISA mandate what kind of benefits employers must provide if they choose to have such a plan.”
10 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.