English v. Fischer’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
31 federal appellate · 2 district · 150 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 258 later decisions — most recently March 2025 · most notably Formosa Plastics Corp. USA v. Presidio Engineers and Contractors, Inc. (1998), Arnold v. National County Mutual Fire Insurance Co. (1987)
31 federal appellate · 2 district · 150 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 Crisci v. Security Insurance · Comunale v. Traders & General Insurance · Fitz-Gerald v. Hull · Kinzbach Tool Co. v. Corbett-Wallace Corp. · Massey v. Armco Steel Co.
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 258 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A basis for the judgments below was the adoption of a novel theory of law enunciated only by California courts. That theory holds that in every contract there is an implied covenant that neither party will do anything which injures the right of the other party to receive the benefits of the agreement. The courts below call this a covenant of “good faith and fair dealing.” This concept is contrary to our well-reasoned and long-established adversary system which has served us ably in Texas for almost 150 years. Our system permits parties who have a dispute over a contract to present their case to an impartial tribunal for a determination of the agreement as made by the parties and embodied in the contract itself. To adopt the laudatory sounding theory of “good faith and fair dealing” would place a party under the onerous threat of treble damages should he seek to compel his adversary to perform according to the contract terms as agreed upon by the parties. The novel concept advocated by the courts below would abolish our system of government according to settled rules of law and let each case be decided upon what might seem “fair and in good faith,” by each fact finder. This we are unwilling to do.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage“arises from the element of trust necessary to accomplish the goals of the undertaking * * * *”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“(1) a promise, (2) foreseeability of reliance thereon by the promisor, and (3) substantial reliance by the promisee to his detriment.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.