Kel Kim Corp. v. Central Markets, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
16 federal appellate · 6 district · 19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 134 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2024 · most notably United States v. Winstar Corp. (1996), Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc. v. John Hancock Life Insurance (2009)
16 federal appellate · 6 district · 19 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.
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 134 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“excuses a party's performance only when the subject matter of the contract or the means of performance makes performance objectively impossible.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“If either party to this [agreement] shall be delayed or prevented from the performance of any obligation through no fault of their own by reason of labor disputes, inability to procure materials, failure of utility service, restrictive governmental laws or regulations, riots, insurrection, war, adverse weather, Acts of God, or other similar causes beyond the control of such party, the performance of such obligation shall be excused for the period of the delay.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[ O ]nce a party to a contract has made a promise, that party must perform or respond in damages for its failure, even when unforeseen circumstances make performance burdensome.... While [impossibility] defenses have been recognized in the common law, they have been applied narrowly, due in part to judicial recognition that the purpose of contract law is to allocate the risks that might affect performance and that performance should be excused only in extreme circumstances.”
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.