Gulf Refining Co. v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis
93 F.2d 870 · 1938
Citation profile
15 federal appellate · 3 district · 8 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 30 later decisions — most recently September 2003 · most notably B. P. Oil Corp. v. Mabe (1977), Chevron Oil Co. v. Sutton Ex Rel. Sutton (1973)
15 federal appellate · 3 district · 8 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 Standard Oil Company v. Edward Anderson · Pennsylvania Co v. Chamberlain · Texas Co. v. Mills · Gulf Refining Co. v. William Wilkinson · United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Industrial Commission
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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““[T]his was a consignment business so arranged as to leave little or no discretion to the consignee in the sale of the goods. His province was merely to find customers, make deliveries, and collect the money. There was some leeway in the choice and management of employees and in the amount of their salaries which the distributor was required to pay out of his commissions. But even here the company was the dominant figure. It stipulated [as did Texaco in the instant case] that the distributor carry workmen’s compensation insurance * * * [a promise] quite unnecessary if it had no responsibility for their [injuries]. * * * The necessity for assistants to the distributor was inherent in the business; the selection of men resident in the locality and the supervision of their conduct [which authority Texaco similarly “granted” to Crudup] was necessarily reposed in some local representative, so that the actions of the parties would have been substantially the samé if the contract had contained no clause conferring upon the distributor full control of the men he employed. The power of the company to put an end to the employment of the distributor at will rendered him at all times and in all respects subservient to its will. The language of the contract referred to must therefore be regarded as a futile attempt to secure the benefits of complete control while repudiating its liabilities.” Id. at 873, 875. (Emphasis added.)”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It is only by consideration of all the facts pertaining to the relationship in any case, including the provisions of the contract, the actual conduct of the parties, and the conditions of the business in which they are engaged, that it can be determined whether the [individual] is endowed with that control over his own methods and means of doing the work which is the test of an independent contractor.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It is clear that a principal may not escape liability to third persons for the torts of a subagent, appointed by his agent with his consent, merely by entering into a contract with his agent under which the latter assumes sole responsibility for the subagent’s conduct. The responsibility of the principal to third persons imposed by law may not be so lightly disposed of.””
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.