Fitzgerald v. Manning’s Empirical Analysis
679 F.2d 341 · 1982
Citation profile
24 federal appellate · 6 district · 10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 70 later decisions — most recently March 2019 · most notably Baber v. Hospital Corp. of America (1992), Rohrbough v. Wyeth Laboratories, Inc. (1990)
24 federal appellate · 6 district · 10 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 Thompson v. United States · Carson v. Maurer · Menarde v. Philadelphia Transportation Co. · Wratchford v. Groves & Sons · Ewing v. Goode
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 70 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Nor is this standard violated because an expert disagrees with a defendant as to what is the best or better approach in treating a patient. Medicine is an inexact science and eminently qualified physicians may differ as to what constitutes a preferable course of treatment. Such differences as to preference do not amount to malpractice. To constitute malpractice, the proffered expert must testify clearly that there has been a departure from acceptable medical standards, as followed by ordinary, prudent practitioners in [the defendant’s] field and community, or in similar communities. 679 F.2d at 347 (Citations omitted.)”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“that it is more likely than not that the conduct of the defendant was a substantial factor in bringing about the result. A mere possibility of such causation is not enough, and when the matter remains one of pure speculation or conjecture, or the probabilities are at best evenly balanced, it becomes the duty of the court to direct a verdict for the defendant.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“‘malpractice cases, proof of causal connection must be something more than consistent with the plaintiff’s theory of how the claimed injury was caused.’”
2 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.