Smith v. Bowen’s Empirical Analysis
815 F.2d 1152 · 1987
Citation profile
22 federal appellate · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 53 later decisions — most recently July 2024 · most notably Government of the Virgin Islands v. Knight (1993), Resolution Trust Corporation v. North Bridge Associates Inc (1994)
22 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
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1988 · 42 U.S.C. § 406 (§ 206 of the Social Security Act of 1935)
Relies on United States v. Turkette · Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill · Monsanto Company v. Spray-Rite Service Corporation · White v. New Hampshire Department of Employment Security · Federal Communications Commission v. League of Women Voters of California
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 53 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the Supreme Court has recognized limitations on the requirement that statutory language be interpreted literally. A literal construction is inappropriate if it would lead to absurd results or would thwart the obvious purposes of the statute.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Reading the statute as a whole, we do not believe Congress meant that the only time at which fees could be awarded is the time of judgment. By authorizing the attorney to be paid directly out of the claimant's past-due benefits, Congress intended to make it easier, not harder for attorneys to collect their fees. A more appropriate reading of § 406(b)(1) is that a judgment favorable to the claimant is merely a prerequisite to a fee award under the statute.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“`imposes no time limit apart from an implicit requirement of reasonableness'”
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.