In Re Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
2 federal appellate ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently April 2006
2 federal appellate ·
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 11 U.S.C. § 1322 · 11 U.S.C. § 1325 · 11 U.S.C. § 506
Relies on Hensley v. Eckerhart · Blum v. Stenson · Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc. · Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air · Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air
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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In concluding that reasonable attorney’s fees must be measured by considering the number of hours reasonably expended by [the creditor’s] counsel at a reasonable hourly rate, I necessarily reject Associates’ argument that the FNMA fee schedule is per se reasonable and should be accepted by this court. [The creditor] suggests that lenders such as FNMA have an incentive to limit their fees to a reasonable amount because “they’re the-ones that pay it.” N.T. 38. This argument, to the extent it permits a lender to define the term “reasonable”, goes too far. This very controversy arises because the lender is not paying its legal expenses; it is exercising its contractual right to pass its expenses on to its borrowers. This right is routinely exercised against mortgagors. Thus, the economic incentive to limit the attorney’s fees incurred suggested by [the creditor] is illusory.... This is not to say that the FNMA fee schedule has no relevance to this controversy. The industry-wide standard is considered in assessing the reasonableness of the requested fees. Simply put, it is not conclusive.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. In Re Gordon-Brown“In accepting the lower end of the three to four hour range suggested by the testimony, I have considered the following: (1) the absence of contemporaneous time records; (2) the fact that the case presented no special or unusual legal issues; (3) the use of form pleadings by [the lender's attorney] and forms filled out by non-attorney staff; and (4) the fact that the foreclosure litigation terminated prior to sheriff’s sale making it unnecessary for [the lender's attorney] to perform various services which he ordinarily performs after the entry of judgment and which form the basis of his total $500.00 fee.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. In Re Gordon-Brown
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.