Berko v. Freda’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 7 district · 131 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 150 later decisions — most recently September 2017 · most notably 8 Cal. 4th 532 - Neighbarger v. Irwin Industries, Inc. (1994), Kaminski v. Town of Fairfield (1990)
3 federal appellate · 7 district · 131 state decisions — followed in 21 states
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 31 Cal. 3d 362 - Lipson v. Superior Court · Wagner v. International Railway Co. · 20 Cal. 3d 199 - Walters v. Sloan · Butler v. Acme Markets, Inc. · Krauth v. Israel Geller and Buckingham Homes, Inc.
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 150 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“.... [I]t is the fireman’s business to deal with that very hazard and hence, perhaps by analogy to the contractor engaged as an expert to remedy dangerous situations, he cannot complain of negligence in the creation of the very occasion for his engagement. In terms of duty, it may be said there is none owed the fireman to exercise care so as not to require the special services for which he is trained and paid. Probably most fires are attributable to negligence, and in the final analysis the policy decision is that it would be too burdensome to charge all who carelessly cause or fail to prevent fires with the injuries suffered by the expert retained with public funds to deal with those inevitable, although negligently created, occurrences.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[F]undamental concepts of justice prohibit a police officer from complaining of negligence in the creation of the very occasion for his engagement . . . This fundamental concept rests on the assumption that governmental entities employ fire fighters and police officers, at least in part, to deal with the hazards that may result from their taxpayers' own future acts of negligence. Exposing the negligent taxpayer to liability for having summoned the police would impose upon him multiple burdens for that protection.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[A] police officer does not have time to draw up a contract with the owner of a stolen car outlining the risks of pursuing the thieves, but the very nature of police work requires officers to recognize the dangers inherent in such emergencies. N.J.S.A. 52:17B-68 mandates police training courses for this very reason. Indeed, one who does not know the risks inherent in a high speed chase should not engage in high speed chasing. [Berko v. Freda, supra, 93 N.J. at 88 , 459 A.2d 663 ].”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.