Barrows v. Wareham Fire District’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 district · 14 state decisions

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.

1. “made by public officials while performing their official duties are conditionally privileged.... The threat of defamation suits may deter public officials from complying with their official duties when those duties include the need to make statements on important public issues.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 3137, LLC v. Town of Harwich · 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1104 - Nicholson v. Another

2. “The Act expressly exempts intentional torts from its provisions, and therefore a public employer cannot be sued for the intentionally tortious conduct of its employee.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Calixte v. David · 368 F. Supp. 3d 137 - Cordero v. Pack

3. “[T]he gravamen of the tort of defamation does not lie in the nature or degree of the misconduct but in its outcome, i.e., the injury to the reputation of the plaintiff.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 93 Mass. App. Ct. 1102 - Hampton v. Ashok