Berkovich v. Hicks’s Empirical Analysis
922 F.2d 1018 · 1991
Citation profile
16 federal appellate · 5 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 52 later decisions — most recently June 2025 · most notably Holcomb v. Powell (2006), Reilly v. NatWest Markets Group Inc. (1999)
16 federal appellate · 5 district ·
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 · Huddleston v. United States · National Labor Relations Board v. International Longshoremen's Ass'n · Boykin v. Alabama · Mallis v. Bankers Trust Co.
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 52 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.... The earlier exoneration of [the defendant officer] on six of the seven prior complaints certainly lessens the probative value of [the] similar act evidence, tilting the scales further toward a finding of undue prejudice. The trial court therefore did not abuse its discretion in finding that the slight probative value of this evidence—as to a theory of motive, pattern or other less plausible theories of relevance—was sub stantially outweighed by its potential for prejudice.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1) there is such a complete absence of evidence supporting the verdict that the jury’s findings could only have been the result of sheer surmise and conjecture, or (2) there is such an overwhelming amount of evidence in favor of the movant that reasonable and fair minded [people] could not arrive at a verdict against him.”
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.