Simpson v. Sumner County’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently December 2014
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 Hartley v. Ballou · Bodne v. Austin · Hackworth v. Ralston Purina Company · Williams v. Thompson · Dixon v. Mountain City Construction 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[I]n 1957 three states made some move to abolish or alter the governmental immunity as it applies to governmental entities within those states. By 1970, some 25 states [had] taken affirmative action to abolish or restrict the defense of governmental immunity in tort actions brought against public agencies. In those states that have abolished or altered governmental immunities the results have been achieved in three different ways. The first and probably the most disruptive method of limited tort liability or tort immunity has come about by court decisions which have held the doctrine to be inapplicable. These decisions have led to a quagmire of problems and [have] generally thrown both the claimants and the governmental bodies into confusion and chaos. The second method ... has been in those states where the legislatures [have] passed acts which prohibit the use of governmental immunities as a tort defense.... The third method, which is what this bill, will do, is the one which limits governmental tort immunity, but at the same time provides procedures and standards to protect the public interest.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Except as may be otherwise provided in this chapter, all governmental entities shall be immune from suit for any injury which may result from the activities of such governmental entities wherein such governmental entities are engaged in the exercise and discharge of any of their functions, governmental or proprietary.”
1 later decision 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.