Dotson v. Chester’s Empirical Analysis
937 F.2d 920 · 1991
Citation profile
14 federal appellate · 5 district · 4 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 51 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2019 · most notably McMillian v. Monroe County (1997), Manders v. Lee (2003)
14 federal appellate · 5 district · 4 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
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1988
Relies on Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · City of Canton v. Harris · Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati · City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik · Hutto v. Finney
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 51 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the Sheriff is not always a state employee or always a county employee. He may, on occasion, be both, or sometimes one and sometimes the other. It all depends on the particular function the Sheriff is performing.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“First, ... municipalities may be held liable under § 1983 only for acts for which the municipality itself is actually responsible, “that is, acts which- the municipality has officially sanctioned or ordered.” Second, only those municipal officials who have “final policy making authority” may by their actions subject the government to § 1983 liability. Third, whether a particular official has “final policy making authority” is a question of state law. Fourth, the challenged action must have been taken pursuant to a policy adopted by the official or officials responsible under state law for making policy in that area of the city’s business.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Interestingly, after Rucker , the Maryland legislature appears to have ensured that, regardless of the characterization of the Sheriff, the counties would pay for sheriffs' torts ... The legislature amended the state law ... to require the counties either to carry insurance to cover claims against sheriffs or to reimburse the State for the costs of paying and defending claims.”
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.