Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital v. Mercury Construction Corp.

Decided February 23, 1983. William Joseph Brennan Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 81-1203 · 460 U.S. 1 (1983) · Cited 9,657 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 6–3.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States · 424 U.S. 800 (1976)
• Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp. · 337 U.S. 541 (1949)
• Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay · 437 U.S. 463 (1978)
• Idlewild Bon Voyage Liquor Corp. v. Epstein · 370 U.S. 713 (1962)
• Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co. · 388 U.S. 395 (1967)
• Will v. Calvert Fire Insurance · 437 U.S. 655 (1978)
• Landis v. North American Co. · 299 U.S. 248 (1936)
• Railroad Comm'n of Tex. v. Pullman Co. · 312 U.S. 496 (1941)
• Abney v. United States · 431 U.S. 651 (1977)
• Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Risjord · 449 U.S. 368 (1981)
• England v. Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners · 375 U.S. 411 (1964)
• Cobbledick v. United States · 309 U.S. 323 (1940)
• Kerotest Manufacturing Co. v. C-O-Two Fire Equipment Co. · 342 U.S. 180 (1952)
• McNeese v. Board of Education for Community Unit School District 187 Cahokia · 373 U.S. 668 (1963)
• Carson v. American Brands, Inc. · 450 U.S. 79 (1981)
• County of Allegheny v. Frank Mashuda Co. · 360 U.S. 185 (1959)
• United States v. MacDonald · 435 U.S. 850 (1978)
• Donovan v. City of Dallas · 377 U.S. 408 (1964)
• Harris County Commissioners Court v. Moore · 420 U.S. 77 (1975)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Quackenbush v. Allstate Insurance · 517 U.S. 706 (1996)
• Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. v. Mayacamas Corp. · 485 U.S. 271 (1988)
• Arizona v. San Carlos Apache Tribe of Ariz. · 463 U.S. 545 (1983)
• Volt Info. Sciences, Inc. v. Bd. of Trustees of Leland Stanford Jr. U. · 489 U.S. 468 (1989)
• Southland Corp. v. Keating · 465 U.S. 1 (1984)
• Mitsubishi Motors Corp. v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc. · 473 U.S. 614 (1985)
• Vaden v. Discover Bank · 556 U.S. 49 (2009)
• Wilton v. Seven Falls Co. · 515 U.S. 277 (1995)
• Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. v. Byrd · 470 U.S. 213 (1985)
• Green Tree Financial Corp.-Alabama v. Randolph · 531 U.S. 79 (2000)
• Howsam v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc. · 537 U.S. 79 (2002)
• Hall Street Associates, L. L. C. v. Mattel, Inc. · 552 U.S. 576 (2008)
• Mastrobuono v. Shearson Lehman Hutton, Inc. · 514 U.S. 52 (1995)
• Morgan v. Sundance, Inc. · 596 U.S. 411 (2022)
• Preston v. Ferrer · 552 U.S. 346 (2008)
• New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira · 586 U.S. 105 (2019)
• Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela · 587 U.S. 176 (2019)
• BG Group, PLC v. Republic of Argentina · 572 U.S. 25 (2014)
• Badgerow v. Walters · 596 U.S. 1 (2022)
• Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp. · 500 U.S. 20 (1991)
• Shearson/American Express Inc. v. McMahon · 482 U.S. 220 (1987)
• Perry v. Thomas · 482 U.S. 483 (1987)
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Waffle House, Inc. · 534 U.S. 279 (2002)
• Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis · 584 U.S. 497 (2018)
• Walters v. National Assn. of Radiation Survivors · 473 U.S. 305 (1985)
• Compucredit Corp. v. Greenwood · 565 U.S. 95 (2012)
• Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski · 599 U.S. 736 (2023)
• First Options of Chicago, Inc. v. Kaplan · 514 U.S. 938 (1995)
• Rodriguez De Quijas v. Shearson/American Express, Inc. · 490 U.S. 477 (1989)
• New Orleans Public Service, Inc. v. Council of City of New Orleans · 491 U.S. 350 (1989)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

Explore from here

William Joseph Brennan Jr.’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).