Little v. Bryce’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently April 2008
12 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from Texas 215th Judicial District Court)
Relationships
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 794
Relies on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. · Yick Wo v. Hopkins · Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath · Southeastern Community College v. Davis
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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“special relationship” test, the Foley Court decided that the employment relationship was fundamentally contractual and therefore the sole available relief for breaches of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing should be those sounding in contract. . The at-will doctrine is increasingly seen as a “relic of early industrial times” and a "tenacious vestige from the industrial revolution and laissez-faire economics.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Casas v. Wornick Co.“[T]he nature and the theory of our institutions of government ... do not mean to leave room for the play and action of purely personal and arbitrary power ... For the very idea that one man may be compelled to hold his life, or the means of living, or any material right essential to the enjoyment of life, at the mere will of another, seems to be intolerable in any country where freedom prevails....”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“special relationship” test, the Foley Court decided that the employment relationship was fundamentally contractual and therefore the sole available relief for breaches of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing should be those sounding in contract. . The at-will doctrine is increasingly seen as a “relic of early industrial times” and a”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Casas v. Wornick Co.
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.