Patel v. Wargo’s Empirical Analysis
803 F.2d 632 · 1986
Citation profile
29 federal appellate · 3 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 97 later decisions — most recently June 2025 · most notably Mary J. Riordan v. William L. Kempiners and Shirley Randolph (1987), Dole v. Elliott Travel & Tours, Inc. (1991)
29 federal appellate · 3 district · 3 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
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 203 · 29 U.S.C. § 206 (Equal Pay Act of 1963)
Relies on Bonner v. City of Prichard · Ohio Bureau of Employment Services v. Hodory · Logarusic v. United States · Bartels v. Birmingham · Hudson v. Palmer
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 97 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a corporate officer with operational control of a corporation's covered enterprise is an employer along with the corporation, jointly and severally liable under the FLSA for unpaid wages”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]o support individual liability, there must be control over 'significant aspects of [the company's] day-to-day functions, including compensation of employees or other matters in relation to an employee.' In other words, while control need not be continuous, it must be both substantial and related to the company's FLSA obligations.”
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.