Allen v. Mellinger’s Empirical Analysis
2001
Citation profile
23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently March 2021 · most notably Commonwealth v. Morris (2003), Commonwealth v. Perry (2002)
23 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 McKnight v. Commonwealth · United States v. N. Y. Rayon Importing Co. · Ayala v. Philadelphia Board of Public Education · Reilly v. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority · Laudenberger v. Port Auth. of Allegheny
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“failed to perceive that the absence of an “unknown” originates in and cannot be separated from the statutory cap. The Woods rationale allows the Court to create an uncertainty of outcome to motivate settlement where no uncertainty otherwise exists. This is far different from channeling the uncertainty of outcome that exists in the case of private litigants not subject to limitations on liability.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“First, the analysis of the language of the Rule proceeded from a misleading paraphrase of the text. The actual language of the rule states “damages for delay shall be added to the amount of compensatory damages awarded against each defendant or additional defendant found liable to the plaintiff in the verdict of a jury, in the decision of the court ... or in the award of arbitrators ... and shall become part of the verdict, decision or award.” (Emphasis added). The Woods opinion, however, ignored the emphasized language and declared that the Rule “provides that delay damages shall be added to the ‘verdict of the jury ... decision of the court ... or award of arbitrators....’” 612 A.2d at 971 . When the text is read in full, delay damages are added to the compensatory damages awarded against each defendant and then become part of the verdict. According to the Woods paraphrase, delay damages are simply added to the verdict. The difference in meaning is readily apparent and all the more critical because the next step of the Woods analysis characterized the “verdict or award” as representing the fact-finder’s assessment of the plaintiffs damage and contrasted it with the amount the plaintiff is legally entitled to recover. The Woods opinion is similarly inadequate in its analysis of the purposes underlying Rule 238. With respect to the rule’s purpose of compensating the plaintiff for delay in receiving his or her recovery, it defies reason to suggest that the basis for calculatin”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“(a)(1) At the request of the plaintiff in a civil action seeking monetary relief for bodily injury, death or property damage, damages for delay shall be added to the amount of compensatory damages awarded against each defendant or additional defendant found to be liable to the plaintiff in the verdict of a jury, in the decision of the court in a nonjury trial or in the award of arbitrators appointed under section 7361 of the Judicial Code, 42 Pa.C.S. § 7361, and shall become part of the verdict, decision or award. (2) Damages for delay shall be awarded for the period of time from a date one year after the date original process was first served in the action up to the date of the award, verdict or decision. (3) Damages for delay shall be calculated at the rate equal to the prime rate as listed in the first edition of the Wall Street Journal published for each calendar year for which the damages are awarded, plus one percent, not compounded.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.