Pfeffer v. Ernst’s Empirical Analysis
1951
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 7 district · 13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently December 2011 · most notably Hall v. Ford (1988), Adams v. George W. Cochran & Co., Inc. (1991)
3 federal appellate · 7 district · 13 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 National Labor Relations Board v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. · Associated Press v. National Labor Relations Board · Southern Express Company v. John Byers · Clark v. Associated Retail Credit Men of Washington · Littell v. Evening Star Newspaper Co.
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It might well be that because of the promise, plaintiff was put to a disadvantage by not applying for other work elsewhere, but the stipulation recites not only that she suffered no physical injury, but no special damage of any kind ex cept mental suffering. This we think falls into the category of mental distress which every person suffers who has lost a job or any other commercial or professional advantage. We must rule that such does not under the facts before us constitute actionable damages.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[a]s a general rule, damages for mental anguish suffered by reason of the breach [of a contract] are not recoverable. Some type of mental anguish, anxiety, or distress is apt to result from the breach of any contract which causes pecuniary loss. Yet damages therefor are deemed to be too remote to have been in the contemplation of the parties at the time the contract was entered into to be considered as an element of compensatory damages. This rule of law seems to be well-established.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.