Bjork v. Chrysler Corp.’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 21 later decisions — most recently November 2009
2 federal appellate · 18 state decisions — followed in 11 states
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 Duncan v. Cessna Aircraft Co. · Brotherhood of Railway & Steamship Clerks v. Florida East Coast Railway Co. · Gilbert v. . Finch · Amoco Production Co. v. Stauffer Chemical Co. · Hasselrode v. Gnagey
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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Apparently the General Assembly intended to change the common law; otherwise, there would have been no reason to enact the statute. The legislative mandate in R.C. 2307.32 abrogates the common law rule which provided that a release given to one tortfeasor was a release of all others and often entrapped the average person into reasonably assuming that settling a claim with one person would have no effect upon rights against others with whom he did not deal. (Citation omitted.) Instead, R.C. 2307.32 provides that a release to one tortfeasor does not discharge any other tortfeasor “unless its terms otherwise provide.” The thrust of this section is to retain the liability of tortfeasors and, thus, the phrase “unless the terms otherwise provide” should be narrowly construed and require a degree of specificity. Allowing a discharge which does not name or identify a tortfeasor perpetrates the common law rule and is contrary to statute. The statutory phrase “unless its terms provide otherwise” requires a release to expressly designate by name or to otherwise specifically describe or identify any tortfeasor to be discharged. For example, a release could meet the statutory requirement by naming an individual or specifically identifying a tortfeasor such as stating the driver of the car which struck the motorcycle.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“The injustice of the traditional rule was that it frequently acted to extinguish a cause of action which was only partly compensated, even though the parties themselves had no such intention. The rule also made it very difficult for a claimant to settle a claim by partial settlements with several persons who were jointly liable for his injury. A major cause of these difficulties was the doctrine of joint liability itself, a doctrine largely grounded in a policy of assuring compensation for injured plaintiffs, but which the traditional rule paradoxically converted into a burden and a trap for unwary plaintiffs.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Neves v. Potter“As with any other contract, the lodestar of construction [of a release agreement] should be 'that the intention of the parties shall govern.' "); Keeton, Dobbs, Keeton, and Owen, Prosser and Keeton, Law of Torts, Sec. 49, at 335 (5th ed. 1984) ("[A] plaintiff should never be deprived of a cause of action against any wrongdoer when the plaintiff has neither intentionally surrendered the cause of action nor received substantially full compensation. If the statutes are taken into account, this is now the rule actually applied in most American jurisdictions.”
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.