Fargo v. City of San Juan Bautista’s Empirical Analysis
857 F.2d 638 · 1988
Citation profile
15 federal appellate · 1 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 30 later decisions — most recently September 2008 · most notably Wood v. Ostrander (1989), Anthony Nicini Jr v. Edward Morra (2000)
15 federal appellate · 1 district · 2 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. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Daniels v. Williams · City of Oklahoma City v. Tuttle · Whitley v. Albers · Smith v. Wade
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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“When reasonable persons may disagree as to whether particular conduct constitutes negligence, gross negligence or recklessness, the question is one of fact to be decided by a jury.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“grossly negligent or reckless official conduct that infringes upon an interest protected by the Due Process Clause is actionable under § 1983.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“special relationship” may well have arisen when the victim was handcuffed and thus at the mercy of the police officer. But the harm in Fargo was inflicted directly by a police officer, i.e., by a state actor. Whether the state was in a "special relationship” with the plaintiff, and therefore had to protect him from third parties, was thus irrelevant. In other words, it is unclear what Fargo has to do with a case, such as Redman , involving state liability for harm inflicted by private third parties. Indeed, the Fargo court itself distinguished, as involving "a failure to act, rather than affirmative official misconduct,”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.