Porter v. American Optical Corp.’s Empirical Analysis
641 F.2d 1128 · 1981
Citation profile
53 federal appellate · 8 district · 31 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 149 later decisions — most recently September 2018 · most notably Keene Corporation v. Insurance Company of North America Keene Corporation (1981), Cox v. Administrator United States Steel & Carnegie (1994)
53 federal appellate · 8 district · 31 state decisions — followed in 16 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
Relies on Erie Co v. Tompkins · Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Electric Manufacturing Co. · The Boeing Company v. Daniel C. Shipman · Jordan v. Travelers Insurance Company · Weber v. Fidelity & Casualty Insurance Co. of NY
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 149 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“bodily injury, sickness or disease sustained by any person which occurs during the policy period....”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“made in Louisiana or in a state where the law would be the same as that of Louisiana.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The insurance policies obligate the insurers to “pay on behalf of the insured all sums which the insured shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because of bodily injury ... to which this insurance applies, caused by an occurrence.” Whether the claimants’ diseases are “bodily injury to which this insurance applies” depends on the definition of bodily injury. The policies define bodily injury as “bodily injury, sickness or disease which occurs during the policy period.” The injuries at issue are caused by an “occurrence,” which the policies define as “an accident, including continuous or repeated exposure to conditions, which result in bodily injury.... neither expected nor intended” by the insured. The medical evidence in this case unequivocally establishes that injuries occur during the development of asbestosis immediately upon exposure, and that the injuries continue to occur even after exposure ends during the progression of the disease right up until the time that increasing incapacitation results in manifestation as a recognizable disease. If any of these phases of the pathogenesis occurs during the policy period, the insurer is obligated to indemnify J.H. France under the terms of the policy. Abundant authority supports this result. In the surfeit of litigation spawned by asbestos-related disease, many courts have recognized that mere exposure to asbestos causes injury within the meaning of the same policy language which controls this case. See, e.g., Porter v”
1 later decision 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.