Owens v. Fulton County’s Empirical Analysis
877 F.2d 947 · 1989
Citation profile
27 federal appellate · 3 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 71 later decisions — most recently May 2021 · most notably Hill v. Dekalb Regional Youth Detention Center (1994), Mandel v. Doe (1989)
27 federal appellate · 3 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 · Kentucky v. Graham · Bonner v. City of Prichard · Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati · City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik
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 71 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The relationship between Amerson [the sheriff] and the county in this case is central to the evaluation of whether the county can be liable for Amerson’s actions. If in hiring and training Williams, Sheriff Amerson was acting as the final repository of county authority, then the county may be liable for constitutional violations arising from the sheriff’s actions. Although the Alabama Supreme Court stated that Amerson was an employee of the state, that does not resolve the issue of whose duty Amerson was implementing when he hired Williams. Amerson’s functional role in conducting his personnel policy is more significant than his technical status as an employee of the state. The pivotal point is wheth er Amerson was exercising county power with final authority.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Dotson v. Chester“[A]n official may simultaneously exercise county authority over some matters and state authority over others. . . . [A]n administrative function . .. might be characterized as an exercise of county power. However, . . . the district attorney's authority over prosecutorial decisions . . . is vested . . . pursuant to state authority.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The courts traditionally have employed a functional analysis in deciding whether a particular individual is a policymaker for the county. The practical test articulated in Familias Unidas ... is whether the decisionmaker, by virtue of his official conduct, serves as the "final authority or ultimate repository of county power."”
1 later decision 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.