Chamberlain v. Parks’s Empirical Analysis
1998
Citation profile
9 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently July 2013
9 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 Collins v. Day · Havert v. Caldwell · New York Cent. RR Co. v. JOHNSON, ADMX., ETC. · Boehm v. Town of St. John · Jordan v. Deery
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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“... Thus, the classification scheme is based upon a party's dependency on the deceased. Therefore, in order to survive constitutional serutiny, the disparate treatment must be rationally related to a parent's dependency. The purpose of the Wrongful Death Act is to compensate surviving next of kin for pecuniary losses. However, the statute was not created to compensate for loss of life. Such a distinction relates to the purpose of the Wrongful Death Act, because it is only the financially dependent who suffer a pecuniary loss upon the decedent's death. Although we have permitted dependent next of kin to recover for loss of love, care and affection, we observed that absent the dependency requirement, the Wrongful Death Act would be subject to abuse. Permitting nondependents to recover under the Wrongful Death Act would allow a host of unknown potential claimants to seek recovery. There is nothing in the Wrongful Death Act permitting recovery for emotional damages by nondependents. Rather, it is the intent and purpose of the legislature to permit recovery only to those who were financially dependent on the decedent. Thus, limiting damages to those who are dependent on the deceased is rational, and the Wrongful Death Act satisfies the first prong of Collins.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Terry v. Stephens“... When the death of one is caused by the wrongful act or omission of another, the action shall be commenced by the personal representative of the decedent within two (2) years, and the damages shall be in such an amount as may be determined by the court or jury, including, but not limited to, reasonable medical, hospital, funeral and burial expenses, and lost earnings of such deceased person resulting from said wrongful act or omission.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“(1) The disparate treatment accorded by the statute must be reasonably related to inherent characteristics which rationally distinguish the unequally treated classes; and (2) The preferential treatment must be uniformly applicable and equally available to all persons similarly situated.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Terry v. Stephens
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.