72 Ill. 2d 495 - Walker v. Rumer’s Empirical Analysis
1978
Citation profile
7 federal appellate · 3 district · 65 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 78 later decisions — most recently June 2020 · most notably 141 Ill. 2d 281 - Quake Construction, Inc. v. American Airlines, Inc. (1990), Buckelew v. Grossbard (1981)
7 federal appellate · 3 district · 65 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 37 Ill. 2d 273 - Miller v. DeWitt · 57 Ill. 2d 7 - Winnett v. Winnett · 32 Ill. 2d 446 - Metz v. Central Illinois Electric & Gas Co. · 57 Ill. 2d 298 - Edgar County Bank & Trust Co. v. Paris Hospital, Inc. · 62 Wash. 2d 351 - Horner v. NORTHERN PAC. ETC. HOSP., INC.
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 78 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The requirement for the application of the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur is not that the surgical procedure be ‘commonplace’ or that the ‘average person’ be able to understand what is involved; the determination which must be made as a matter of law is whether ‘the occurrence is such as in the ordinary course of things would not have happened’ if the party exercising control or management had exercised proper care. That determination may rest either upon the common knowledge of laymen or expert testimony.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"Although ordinarily only ultimate facts, and not conclusions or inferences, are to be pleaded, we are of the opinion that in the pleading of a cause of action in medical malpractice cases under the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, reliance on the doctrine should be alleged. (See Edgar County Bank & Trust Co. v. Paris Hospital, Inc. (1974), 57 Ill.2d 298, 303 ."”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In the usual case the basis of past experience from which this conclusion [that such events do not ordinarily occur unless someone has been negligent] may be drawn is common to the community, and is a matter of general knowledge, which the court recognizes on much the same basis as when it takes judicial notice of facts which everyone knows. It may, however, be supplied by the evidence of the parties; and expert testimony that such an event usually does not occur without negligence may afford a sufficient basis for the inference. Such testimony may be essential to the plaintiff’s case where, as for example in some actions for medical malpractice, there is no fund of common knowledge which may permit laymen reasonably to draw the conclusion.”
1 later decision 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.