Wyatt v. Cole’s Empirical Analysis
928 F.2d 718 · 1991
Citation profile
8 federal appellate · 2 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2015
8 federal appellate · 2 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.
Appellate journey
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2201 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1988
Relies on Hensley v. Eckerhart · Kentucky v. Graham · Will v. Michigan Department of State Police · Fuentes v. Shevin · Lugar v. Edmondson Oil 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“When claims are based on different legal facts and legal theories, the district court should treat the claims as separate suits and award attorneys fees only for time expended on the successful claims. On the other hand, when the claims arise from a common core of facts and involve related legal theories, the district court should attempt to arrive at a reasonable fee award ‘either by attempting to identify the specific hours that should be eliminated or by simply reducing the award to account for the limited success of the plaintiff.’”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The state cannot dissociate itself from actions taken under its laws by labelling those it commands to act as local officials. A county official pursues his duties as a state agent when he is enforcing state law or policy.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“'a § 1983 defendant who has invoked an attachment statute is entitled to an immunity from monetary liability so long as he neither knew nor reasonably should have known that the statute was unconstitutional.'”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Wyatt v. Cole
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.