Cecil Williams v. Caterpillar Tractor Company’s Empirical Analysis
786 F.2d 928 · 1986
Citation profile
44 federal appellate · 4 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 66 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2018 · most notably Caterpillar Inc. v. Williams (1987), Kruso v. International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. (1989)
44 federal appellate · 4 district · 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.
Appellate journey
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 28 U.S.C. § 1441 · 28 U.S.C. § 1447 · 29 U.S.C. § 157 (§ 7 of the National Labor Relations Act) · 29 U.S.C. § 185 (§ 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (Taft-Hartley Act))
Relies on Franchise Tax Board of the State of California v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust for Southern California · Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills of Ala. · San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon · Gully v. First Nat. Bank in Meridian · Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck
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 66 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a] state law cause of action has been 'completely preempted’ when federal law both displaces and supplants the state law — that is, when federal law provides both a superseding remedy replacing the state law cause of action and preempts that state law cause of action.” Williams v. Caterpillar Tractor Co., 786 F.2d 928, 932 (9th Cir.1986). In a footnote, Justice Brennan, writing for an unanimous Court, rejected this conclusion, finding that it was "squarely contradicted by our decision in [Avco].”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“arises under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“If no federal right is violated by the acts the plaintiffs allege occurred, then no federal question is raised in the complaint and the federal courts are without jurisdiction. The preemption argument then focuses only on the proposition that the state cannot regulate the field, which is a defensive allegation_ Consequently, such an action must be remanded to state court.”
2 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.