Mandsager v. Jaquith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 district ·

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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Mandsager knew, because she had researched the point as reflected in her memo, that there were ways to conduct the mailing legally, such as by completing the registration requirement first. In light of that, even an express direction to mail the solicitation, without more, would not constitute an order to do an act that was necessarily illegal. Furthermore, as Mandsager conceded in her deposition, she never told Jaquith that she would not conduct the mailing. It is not entirely clear why there was no explicit refusal; however, it is fair to assume on these facts that there was no occasion to refuse to conduct an illegal mailing, because no express instruction to make such a mailing was given.... In sum, there was no express direction given to the employee to do an act that would violate the law and there was never an outright refusal, on the employee’s part, to conduct the mailing, an act which may, or may not, have been illegal. We agree with the trial court that Mandsager was never “put to the ‘Hobson’ choice of either doing an illegal act, i.e., putting the solicitations in the mail stream without proper registration first having been achieved, or being fired if she did not elect the former course.” Therefore she is not entitled to relief.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Riggs v. Home Builders Institute