Murphy v. Schwartz’s Empirical Analysis
1986
Citation profile
10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently February 2019
10 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 Bowman v. Henard · German v. Nichopoulos
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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“exception to the general rule, that is, the medical negligence is as blatant as a”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“There is a "common knowledge" exception to the general rule, that is, the medical negligence is as blatant as a "fly floating in a bowl of buttermilk" so that all mankind knows that such things are not done absent negligence.... We see little difference in matters of medical malpractice between the question of the applicability of res ipsa at the close of a plaintiff's proof and the common knowledge exception to the expert medical proof requirement in a summary judgment before trial. It seems to us that the inference of negligence obtained by the application of res ipsa which creates a jury issue and the common knowledge exception to the requirement of expert testimony in summary judgments are just about Siamese twins in that both require that it be evident to all, that is judicial notice be taken, that the injury complained of does not ordinarily occur absent negligence.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“we would be hard put to say that the plaintiffs fact create a “common knowledge to the world” exception to the rule, when there is medical expert proof in the record to the effect that under plaintiffs fact there is no medical negligence. The real issue created by this appeal is not whether the plaintiffs, by lay opinion, show blatant buttermilk fly floating negligence; but, whether the plaintiff may refute admissible expert opinion evidence by lay opinion evidence. Plaintiffs may not do so.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Patterson v. Arif
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.