Kumpf v. Steinhaus’s Empirical Analysis
779 F.2d 1323 · 1985
Citation profile
23 federal appellate · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 30 later decisions — most recently February 2005 · most notably Jordan v. Duff & Phelps, Inc. (1987), Skycom Corporation v. Telstar Corporation (1987)
23 federal appellate · 1 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 Aronson v. Lewis · Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance v. Ludwig · 113 Wis. 2d 561 - Brockmeyer v. Dun & Bradstreet · Boston Firefighters Union, Local 718 v. Boston Chapter · Joy v. North
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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Kumpf had no tenure of office. The lack of job security gave him a keen motive to do well. Security of position may diminish that incentive.... Employment at will, like the business judgment doctrine, also keeps debates about business matters out of the hands of courts. People who enter a contract without a fixed term know there is some prospect that their business partners may try to take advantage of them or simply make a blunder in deciding whether to continue the relationship. Yet people’s concern for their reputation and their ability to make other advantageous contracts in the future leads them to try to avoid both mistakes and opportunistic conduct. Contracting parties may sensibly decide that it is better to tolerate the risk of error — to leave correction to private arrangements — than to create a contractual right to stay in office in the absence of a “good” reason. The reason for a business decision may be hard to prove, and the costs of proof plus the risk of mistaken findings of breach may reduce the productivity of the employment relation.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“A contract at will may be terminated for any reason (including bad faith) or no reason, without judicial review; the only exception is a termination that violates a 'fundamental and well-defined public policy as evidenced by existing law.'”
1 later decision 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.