A Fisher type inequality

In this paper we study subsets of a finite set that intersect each other in at most one element. Each subset intersects most of the other subsets in exactly one element. The following theorem is one of our main conclusions. Let S₁,… S_m be m subsets of an n-set S with |S₁| ? 2 (l = 1, …,m) and |S_i ∩ S_j| ? 1 (i ≠ j; i, j = 1, …, m). Suppose further that for some fixed positive integer c each S_i has non-empty intersection with at least m ? c of the remaining subsets. Then there is a least positive integer M(c) depending only on c such that either m ? n or m ? M(c).