Davis v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The purpose of punitive damages ... is to punish conduct which is morally culpable .... Such an award serves to deter a wrongdoer . . . from repetitions of the same or similar actions. And it tends to encourage prosecution of a claim by a victim who might not otherwise incur the expense or inconvenience of private action . . . . The public benefit and a display of ethical indignation are among the ends of the policy to grant punitive damages.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hilder v. St. Peter