85 Ill. 2d 146 - Witherell v. Weimer’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
21 federal appellate · 1 district · 300 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 392 later decisions — most recently June 2025 · most notably 88 Ill. 2d 407 - Knox College v. Celotex Corp. (1981), 223 Ill. 2d 49 - DeLuna v. Burciaga (2006)
21 federal appellate · 1 district · 300 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 United States v. Kubrick · Glus v. Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal · 43 Ill. 2d 54 - Rozny v. Marnul · 45 Ill. 2d 418 - Williams v. Brown Manufacturing Co. · 79 Ill. 2d 295 - Anderson v. Wagner
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 392 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(b) Subject to the provisions of subsections (c) and (d) no product liability action based on any theory or doctrine shall be commenced except within the applicable limitations period and, in any event, within 12 years from the date of first sale, lease or delivery of possession by a seller or 10 years from the date of first sale, lease or delivery of possession to its initial user, consumer, or other non-seller, whichever period expires earlier, of any product unit that is claimed to have injured or damaged the plaintiff * * *. * * * (d) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (b) and paragraph (2) of subsection (c) if the injury complained of occurs within any of the periods provided by subsection (b) and paragraph (2) of subsection (c), the plaintiff may bring an action within 2 years after the date on which the claimant knew, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have known, of the existence of the personal injury, death or property damage, but in no event shall such action be brought more than 8 years after the date on which such personal injury, death or property damage occurred.”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"starts to run when a person knows or reasonably should know of his injury and also knows or reasonably should know that it was wrongfully caused. At that point the burden is upon the injured person to inquire further as to the existence of a cause of action.” Witherell, 85 Ill. 2d at 156 , 421 N.E.2d at 874 .”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Where it is apparent from the undisputed facts ... that only one conclusion can be drawn, the question becomes one for the court.”
9 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.