American Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Merry’s Empirical Analysis
592 F.2d 118 · 1979
Citation profile
60 federal appellate · 14 district · 52 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 220 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2024 · most notably Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc. (1983), Alessi v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc. (1981)
60 federal appellate · 14 district · 52 state decisions — followed in 23 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 26 U.S.C. § 401 (Self-Employed Individuals Tax Retirement Act of 1962)
Relies on Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp. · Hisquierdo v. Hisquierdo · Ray v. Atlantic Richfield Co. · Wetmore v. Markoe
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 220 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the purpose of the proscription on alienation and assignment is to protect an employee from his own financial improvidence in dealing with third parties.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[e]ach pension plan shall provide that benefits provided under the plan may not be assigned or alienated.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the continued well-being and security of millions of employees and their dependents”
5 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.