Donovan v. Mercer’s Empirical Analysis
747 F.2d 304 · 1984
Citation profile
27 federal appellate · 6 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 93 later decisions — most recently June 2018 · most notably Six Clinics Holding Corp., II v. Cafcomp Systems, Inc. (1997), Reich v. Lancaster (1995)
27 federal appellate · 6 district ·
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
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 1001 (§ 2 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1002 (§ 3 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1105 (§ 405 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974)
Relies on Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe · 485 F. Supp. 629 - Freund v. Marshall & Ilsley Bank · Studiengesellschaft Kohle v. Eastman Kodak Company · Hicks v. Ocean Drilling & Exploration Co.
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 93 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(i) exercises any discretionary authority or discretionary control respecting management of such plan or exercises any authority or control respecting management or disposition of its assets, ... or (iii) he has any discretionary authority or discretionary responsibility in the administration of such plan.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“`fiduciary' should be defined not only by reference to particular titles, ... but also by considering the authority which a particular person has or exercises over an employee benefit plan.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he definition includes persons who have authority and responsibility with respect to the matter in question, regardless of their formal title.”
3 later decisions 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.