Wells v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 9 district · 14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 54 later decisions — most recently December 2017 · most notably Gavalik v. Continental Can Co. (1987), 335 Pa. Super. 141 - Harris by Harris v. Easton Pub. Co. (1984)
4 federal appellate · 9 district · 14 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
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1985
Relies on Blum v. Yaretsky · Rendell-Baker v. Kohn · Michel v. United States · Bullock v. United States · Murphy v. American Home Products Corp.
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 54 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It has not been enough that the defendant has acted with an intent which is tortious or even criminal, or that he has intended to inflict emotional distress, or even that his conduct has been characterized by "malice”, or a degree of aggravation which would entitle the plaintiff to punitive damages for another tort. Liability has been found only where the conduct has been so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ ‘Publicity’ means that the matter is made public, by communicating it to the public at large, or to so many persons that the matter must be regarded as substantially certain to become one of public knowledge ... The difference is not one of the means of communication ... [but] one of a communication that reaches, or is sure to reach the public.” 12”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“One who gives publicity to matters concerning the private life of another, of a kind highly offensive to a reasonable man, is subject to liability to the other for invasion of his privacy.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.