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claim

Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court

Definitions from Case Law

From 495 U.S. 552 - Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare v. Davenport · 1990Most cited · 2,230 citing opinions

any right to payment that is "unliquidated," "contingent," "unmatured," or "disputed," 11 U.S.C.

How the Supreme Court has restated “claim”

184218501900195020002017 most cited: 495 U.S. 552 - Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare v. Davenport (1990)
first stateddeparted

Each Supreme Court definition of “claim,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.

How often courts cite the cases defining “claim”

1840185019001950200020301.4k

Court decisions citing the 5 opinions that defined “claim” — 3,355 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.

All 5 definitions, chronological · 1842–2017

  1. demand and surrender, without inquiry or investigation! That if legislation be necessary, congress has exclusively that power, has already acted, exercising its power over the whole matter, and therefore, all state legislation is valid.

  2. 1885·113 U.S. 268 - Coon v. Wilson· cited 126×

    description and claim.

  3. This remedial statute reaches beyond 'claims' which might be legally enforced, to all fraudulent attempts to cause the Government to pay out sums of money.

    False Claims Act

  4. enforceable claim." She notes that this Court once referred to a bankruptcy "claim" as "an enforceable obligation." " Pennsylvania Dept.