Percy Whitman Knapp
Appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1972 and confirmed by voice vote, Percy Whitman Knapp was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1934. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1909–2004
- Appointed by
- Richard M. Nixon, 1972
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Yale 1931 · Harvard Law School 1934
- Succeeded
- Walter Roe Mansfield
- Succeeded by
- Robert Porter Patterson Jr.
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Southern District of New York succeeded Walter Roe Mansfield | Nixon (R) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| Yale University | B.A. | 1931 |
| Harvard Law School | LL.B. | 1934 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Knapp was assigned 1,517 district-court cases (1974–2002). Median time from filing to termination: 469 days across 1,517 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
In our data, Knapp authored 341 published opinions for the court (1973–2003). Most cited: Wilds v. United Parcel Service, Inc. (765 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Wilds v. United Parcel Service, Inc. | 262 F. Supp. 2d 163 | 765 |
| 1987 | In Re Johns-Manville Corp. | 78 B.R. 407 | 84 |
| 1976 | Lorber v. Beebe | 407 F. Supp. 279 | 58 |
| 1975 | Business Incentives Co., Inc. v. Sony Corp. of Amer. | 397 F. Supp. 63 | 55 |
| 2002 | Zeng Liu v. Donna Karan International, Inc. | 207 F. Supp. 2d 191 | 48 |
| 2003 | Sussle v. Sirina Protection Systems Corp. | 269 F. Supp. 2d 285 | 45 |
| 1996 | LaSalle National Bank v. Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co. | 951 F. Supp. 1071 | 43 |
| 1997 | Wechsler v. Quadron, Ellenoff, Plesent & Sheinfeld, L.L.P. | 212 B.R. 34 | 42 |
| 2003 | Safe-Strap Co., Inc. v. Koala Corp. | 270 F. Supp. 2d 407 | 40 |
| 1984 | Sixty-Five Security Plan v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield | 583 F. Supp. 380 | 39 |
| 1978 | Korry v. International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. | 444 F. Supp. 193 | 38 |
| 1973 | Grant v. Esquire, Inc. | 367 F. Supp. 876 | 32 |
| 2003 | Arnold v. Goetz | 245 F. Supp. 2d 527 | 31 |
| 1992 | Jennette v. City of New York | 800 F. Supp. 1165 | 31 |
| 1983 | American Mutual Liability Insurance v. Flintkote Co. | 565 F. Supp. 843 | 30 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 341 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed Percy Whitman Knapp?
- President Richard M. Nixon appointed Percy Whitman Knapp to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1972.
- Was Percy Whitman Knapp appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Percy Whitman Knapp was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Percy Whitman Knapp's confirmation vote?
- Percy Whitman Knapp was confirmed by voice vote on June 28, 1972. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was Percy Whitman Knapp on?
- Percy Whitman Knapp was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Unknown author (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
31 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).