Terry v. Little’s Empirical Analysis
101 U.S. 216 · 1879
Citation profile
17 federal appellate · 12 district · 37 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 101 later decisions (10 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 1984 · most notably Young v. Higbee Co. (1945), Russell v. Todd (1940)
17 federal appellate · 12 district · 37 state decisions — followed in 18 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Pollard v. Bailey
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 101 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The second ground of demurrer is equally fatal. The liability of the stockholders is several and not joint. Each stockholder is bound for his own share and no more. No judgment can be rendered against him for what another should pay. It follows that in an action at law eaeh stockholder must be separately sued. In equity it is different, for there the decrees can be molded to suit the exigencies of the case, ansi each stockholder can be held liable and proceeded against for what he is bound to pay, and no more. Undoubtedly, under the provision of some charters, suits at law may be maintained by one creditor against one or more of the stockholders. The form and extent of a statutory liability of this kind depend upon the particular phraseology of the statute which creates the liability. All we decide is that, under this chartey the suit’ to enforce the lia bilily should he in the nature of a suit in equity, by or for all creditors, and that it cannot be at law by one creditor for himself alone, against two stockholders who are jointly liable on account of the shares standing in their respedive names.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The individual liability of stockholders in a corporation is always a creature of statute. It does not exist at common law. * * * The statute which creates the liability may * * * provide directly or indirectly a remedy for its enforcement.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.