56 Cal. 2d 270 - Augustus v. Bean’s Empirical Analysis
1961
Citation profile
67 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 73 later decisions — most recently August 1996 · most notably 39 Cal. 3d 751 - In Re Marriage of Buol (1985), 26 Cal. 3d 744 - People Ex Rel. Department of Transportation v. Superior Court (1980)
67 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 Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, Inc. v. Rosenthal · Adams v. White Bus Line · Deuscher v. Cammerano · 1 Cal. 2d 331 - Smith v. Fall River Joint Union High School District · First National Bank v. Steel
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 73 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“As of the time of the accident a person did not have a vested right at common law to avoid paying for the consequences of his negligence merely because there were other tortfeasors involved. After the entry of a judgment against the joint tortfeasors, each of them was liable in full until the judgment was satisfied, and, if the plaintiff chose to collect from one to the exclusion of another, this was a matter of chance rather than the result of a right which became fixed as of the time of the accident. Contribution statutes, if applied where an accident antedates their enactment, do not retroactively increase the liability existing at the time of the injury but merely provide a method by which the liability of each of the tortfeasors may be limited to his pro rata share of the judgment... . 14 Cal. Rptr. at 642-43 , 393 P.2d at 874-5.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““(a) It shall not discharge any other such tortfeasor from liability unless its terms so provide, but it shall reduce the claims against the others in the amount stipulated by the release, the dismissal or the covenant, or in the amount of the consideration paid for it whichever is the greater; and “(b) It shall discharge the tortfeasor to whom it is given from all liability for any contribution to any other tortfeasors.””
1 later decision 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.