Prudential Co. v. Cline’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 11 state decisions

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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““[W]hen death by accident is challenged and suicide is alleged, the plaintiff has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the death was the result of accident rather than suicide. “The plaintiff always has the burden of proving his or her case. Once a prima facie case is established, the burden of going forward to rebut the prima facie case shifts to the defendant. This burden of going forward is met when the defendant has introduced enough evidence to present a jury question where formerly there was a prima facie case. * * * * “When the ‘accident-suicide’ dichotomy is placed in issue as it was here by the pleadings and the rebuttable presumption, the plaintiff has the burden of proving accident to the exclusion of suicide by a preponderance of the evidence.” (Emphasis added.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Capitol Life Insurance v. Roth

2. “"Though the certified copy of the death certificate was prima facie evidence of suicide, its weight depends, of course, upon the information upon which the certificate was based, the source of that information, and the manner in which it was obtained."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Lockwood v. Travelers Insurance Company