Barnes v. Helfenbein’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 26 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 36 later decisions — most recently October 2025 · most notably Resource Management Co. v. Weston Ranch (1985), Been v. O.K. Industries, Inc. (2007)
4 federal appellate · 26 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.
Relationships
Relies on Henningsen v. Bloomfield Motors, Inc. · Hume v. United States · Williams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co. · County Asphalt, Inc. v. Lewis Welding & Engineering Corp. · State Ex Rel. Derryberry v. Kerr-McGee Corporation
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 36 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[ A]n unconscionable contract is one in which no person in his senses, not under delusion would make, on the one hand, and which no fair and honest man would accept on the other. The basic test of unconscio-nability of a contract is whether under the circumstances existing at the time of making of the contract, and in light of the general commercial background and commercial needs of a particular case, clauses are so one-sided as to oppress or unfairly surprise one of the parties. Unconseiona-bility has generally been recognized to include an absence of meaningful choice on the part of one of the parties, together with contractual terms which are unreasonably favorable to the other party.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“Courts are concerned only with the legality of the contract. The fairness or unfairness, folly or wisdom, or inequality of contracts are questions exclusively within the rights of the parties to adjust at the time the contract is made.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage“a person regularly engaged in the business of making loans.”
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.