Aloe Coal Company v. Clark Equipment Co’s Empirical Analysis
816 F.2d 110 · 1987
Citation profile
61 federal appellate · 25 district · 19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 159 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2018 · most notably Lightning Lube, Inc. v. Witco Corp. (1993), Weisgram v. Marley Co. (2000)
61 federal appellate · 25 district · 19 state decisions — followed in 13 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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1332 (Class Action Fairness Act of 2005)
Relies on Erie Co v. Tompkins · Griggs v. Provident Consumer Discount Co. · East River Steamship Corp. v. Transamerica Delaval Inc. · Castor v. United States · Montgomery Ward & Co. v. Duncan
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 159 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'only if, as a matter of law, the record is critically deficient of that minimum quantity of evidence from which a jury might reasonably [have denied] relief.'”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“too indeterminate to enable manufacturers easily to structure their business behavior.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1) when the defective product injures only itself the reasons for imposing a tort duty are weak and those limiting remedies to contract law are strong; (2) damage to the product itself is most naturally understood as a warranty claim; (3) contract law is well suited to commercial controversies because the parties may set the terms of their own agreements; (4) warranty law sufficiently protects purchasers by allowing them to obtain the benefit of their bargain; and (5) warranty law has built-in limitation on liability, whereas tort actions could subject manufacturers to an indefinite amount of damages.”
4 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.