Wickstrom v. Ebert’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
2 federal appellate ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently March 2012
2 federal appellate ·
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 18 U.S.C. § 241 (Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996) · 42 U.S.C. § 1893 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1988
Relies on Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society · Imbler v. Pachtman · Pierson v. Ray · Butz v. Economou · Stump v. Sparkman
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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“All too frequently, the courts of this district — and others throughout the country — are forced to expend their time and resources administering eases in which there is little, if any, basis for relief. Typically, such actions are filed in ignorance of the nature and scope of those remedies available to civil litigants under federal law. Occasionally, as in this case, ignorance is combined with malice in a suit which, by its very nature, commands the immediate and uninterrupted attention of the Court. The result is that other non-frivolous actions, technically on equal footing with vexatious suits, are not afforded the considered attention they merit, and justice is not done. That individuals like the present plaintiffs are able to so pervert the processes of our judicial system should be a source of great concern among all thinking people, both within and without the legal profession. While this Court alone cannot remedy what has become a problem for courts across the nation, it can and will exercise its discretion in this case to sanction plaintiffs for the vexatious nature of their suit and the oppressive manner in which they have prosecuted it. In this undertaking, the Court follows a growing trend among the district courts in favor of awarding prevailing defendants the expenses they have incurred in the course of malicious litigation. Wickstrom, 585 F.Supp. at 938 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[c]ourt appointed bankruptcy trustees are among those who play a fundamental role in the administration of the judicial process and therefore are entitled to immunity. “Judicial immunity not only protects judges against suit for acts done within their jurisdiction, but also spreads outward to shield related public servants, including ... trustees in bankruptcy....” Judicial employees enjoy absolute immunity for quasi-judicial acts done in the course of their employment. Quasi-judicial acts include those which play a fundamental role to the judicial process.... The role of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee, appointed by a bankruptcy judge, is fundamental to the administration of the estate. A Chapter 7 trustee performing the required functions established by the Bankruptcy Code, [the trustee] is cloaked with the protection given to judicial employees carrying out duties in the scope of their employment.”
1 later decision 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.