Walters v. Rinker’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 1 district · 28 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently February 2008 · most notably Geisz v. Greater Baltimore Medical Center (1988), Dougherty v. Gifford (1992)
1 federal appellate · 1 district · 28 state decisions — followed in 11 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.
Relationships
Relies on Johnson v. St. Vincent Hospital, Inc. · Montgomery v. Crum · McDermott v. Torre · Findlay v. Board of Sup'rs of County of Mohave · Detterline v. Bonaventura
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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A] consensual relationship between a physician and a patient may exist where others have contracted with the physician on the patient's behalf. * * * The important fact in determining whether the relationship is a consensual one * * * is not who contracted for the service but whether it was contracted for with the express or implied consent of the patient or for his benefit. * * * Where * * * health care services are rendered on behalf of the patient and are done for the patient’s benefit, a consensual physician-patient relationship exists for the purposes of medical malpractice.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Generally, a laboratory neither has a continuing or other relevant relationship with the patient nor, as an independent contractor, does it act as an agent for the doctor or otherwise act in relevant association with the physician.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“[A] consensual relationship between a physician and a patient may exist where others have contracted with the physician on the patient's behalf....”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.