Sweet v. Bermingham’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 1 district · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 30 later decisions — most recently January 2011 · most notably Susman v. Lincoln American Corp. (1977), Phillips v. Tobin (1976)
3 federal appellate · 1 district · 6 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 Ross v. Bernhard · Smith v. Sperling · City of Detroit v. Grinnell Corporation, Manhattan-Ward, Incorporated v. Grinnell Corporation, 1225 Vine Street Building, Inc. v. Grinnell Corporation · Surowitz v. Hilton Hotels Corp. · Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin
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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[W]hen a derivative plaintiff demonstrates to the court an intent and desire to vigorously prosecute ... and when he has engaged competent counsel ... then, absent either a conflict of interest which goes to the forcefulness of the prosecution or the existence of antagonism between the plaintiff and other shareholders arising from differences of opinion concerning the best method of vindicating the corporate claim, the representation requirement of Rule 23.1 [the federal rule comparable to Rule 52.09] is met.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Dawson v. Dawson“[The] most important element to be considered is whether plaintiff’s interests are antagonistic to those he is seeking to represent. If there is a conflict of interest, the representation may well be deemed inadequate and the suit dismissed. Of course, a purely hypothetical dispute will not necessitate dismissal.”
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.