Fletcher v. O'Donnell’s Empirical Analysis
867 F.2d 791 · 1989
Citation profile
16 federal appellate · 22 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 76 later decisions — most recently April 2017 · most notably McNabola v. Chicago Transit Authority (1993), Bielevicz v. Dubinon (1990)
16 federal appellate · 22 district · 1 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 Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati · City of Oklahoma City v. Tuttle · City of Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc. · Feingold v. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority · Hanna M. Ayoub and Margaret Ayoub, His Wife v. Dr. H. N. Spencer, M. D.
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 76 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A city may be held liable for an official policy or a custom which proximately causes a constitutional deprivation. A single incident violating a constitutional right done by a governmental agency’s highest policymaker for the activity in question may suffice to establish an official policy. See Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469 , 106 S.Ct. 1292 , 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986) (county attorney’s decision to have sheriffs enter premises established official policy). A single incident by a lower level employee acting under color of law, however, does not suffice to establish either an official policy or a custom. However, if custom can be established by other means, a single application of the custom suffices to establish that it was done pursuant to official policy and thus to establish the agency’s liability. Oklahoma City v. Tuttle, 471 U.S. 808 , 105 S.Ct. 2427 , 85 L.Ed.2d 791 (1985). Custom may be established by proof of knowledge and acquiescence. See Pembaur v. Cincinnati, 475 U.S. at 481-82 n. 10, 106 S.Ct. at 1299 n. 10, 89 L.Ed.2d at 473 n. 10.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“At any new trial, even against the City, Fletcher will be estopped by that judgment from attempting to recover compensatory damages in excess of that amount.”
2 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.