Destefano v. Grabrian’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 16 district · 89 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 121 later decisions — most recently July 2024 · most notably Atlantic Richfield Company v. The Farm Credit Bank of Wichita Stanley a Mollerstuen (2000), Gibson v. Brewer (1997)
6 federal appellate · 16 district · 89 state decisions — followed in 28 states
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 Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Wisconsin v. Yoder · Sherbert v. Verner · School District of Abington Township Pennsylvania v. Schempp J Murray III · Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division
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 121 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“The principal may be negligent because he has reason to know that the servant or other agent, because of his qualities, is likely to harm others in view of the work or instrumentalities entrusted to him. If the dangerous quality of the agent causes harm, the principal may be liable under the rule that one initiating conduct having undue tendency to cause harm is liable therefor.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“If the alleged conduct of Grabrian [the clergy member] was dictated by his sincerely held religious beliefs or was consistent with the practice of his religion, we would have to resolve a difficult first amendment issue. This, however, is not the case. It has not been asserted that Grabrian’s conduct falls within the practices or beliefs of the Catholic church.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.