Phillips v. Tobin’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

36 federal appellate · 5 district · 4 state decisions

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 72 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"To meet the requirement of an attorney's representation plaintiff claims that in fact he is `a person learned in the law,' and accordingly is a lawyer as that term is defined in Black's Law Dictionary. He predicates this claim on his assertion that he has won $613,000 in legal fees and damages by defeating many luminaries at the bar. We need not tarry too long on the merits of this assertion because it is not relevant. The necessity for an attorney in a stockholder's derivative suit appears from the fact that it is a special type of proceeding. Unlike a personal suit, failure of the plaintiff to succeed in the action will result in a loss to the corporation because under the laws of many states, including the law of Maryland where Alleghany was incorporated, a corporation is obligated to indemnify the individual director defendants for their fees and expenses if the suit fails. This could mean a substantial loss to the corporation and could result in a decrease in the corporate assets and the value of the shares. Likewise, any recovery will run directly to the corporation and not to the plaintiff. "In spite of his protest to the contrary, plaintiff, being a layman, cannot provide Alleghany with the competent legal representation which a case of this nature would warrant, nor is Alleghany adequately protected against the plaintiff's failure to comply with the disciplines required of an attorney as an officer of the court. `He is a self-chosen representative and a volunteer ch”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Marguerite E. Wright Trust v. Dept. of Rev.

2. “"Consequently, the person prosecuting the suit must be subject to the standards of ability, responsibility, liability and accountability required of members of the bar, as officers of the court and by the Code of Professional Responsibility. This plaintiff, under the cloak of a pro se applicant, has engaged in conduct in the past which has evoked judicial rebuke and reprimand and has demonstrated his complete disregard of the standards, propriety, discipline or accountability required of members of the bar."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Marguerite E. Wright Trust v. Dept. of Rev.

3. “The basic question raised by [28 U.S.C. § 1654] is whether this stockholder's derivative suit is the plaintiff's 'own case' or is a suit belonging to the corporation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Iannaccone v. Law