Shaeffer v. Kelton’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
7 federal appellate · 23 district · 97 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 139 later decisions — most recently November 2018 · most notably Mascarenas v. Jaramillo (1991), Ponder v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance (2000)
7 federal appellate · 23 district · 97 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 Cave v. Cave · Tome Land & Improvement Co. v. Silva · Jones v. International Union of Operating Engineers · 42 N.J. Super. 332 - Jardine Estates, Inc. v. Donna Brook Corp. · Sierra Blanca Sales Co., Inc. v. Newco Industries, 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 139 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The primary objective in construing a contract is not to label it with specific definitions or to look at form above substance, but to ascertain and enforce the intent of the parties as shown by the contents of the instrument.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the amount owed is 'ascertainable by a mathematical calculation from a standard fixed in the contract or from established market prices.'”
3 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.