Donovan v. Bierwirth’s Empirical Analysis
680 F.2d 263 · 1982
Citation profile
134 federal appellate · 26 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 350 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance v. Russell (1985), Pegram v. Herdrich (2000)
134 federal appellate · 26 district · 3 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
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 411 (§ 1012 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974)
Relies on Securities and Exchange Commission v. Chenery Corporation · Orvis v. Higgins · Doe v. New York University · Jack Kahn Music Co. v. Baldwin Piano & Organ 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 350 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“must be made with an eye single to the interests of the participants and beneficiaries.”
40 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“with the care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent man acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like aims.”
33 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1) deal with the assets of the plan in his own interest or for his own account, (2) in his individual or in any other capacity act in any transaction involving the plan on behalf of a party (or represent a party) whose interests are adverse to the interests of the plan or the interests of its participants or beneficiaries, or (3) receive any consideration for his own personal account from any party dealing with such plan in connection with a transaction involving the assets of the plan.”
12 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.