Simmons v. Wagner’s Empirical Analysis
101 U.S. 260 · 1879
Citation profile
24 federal appellate · 2 district · 28 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 89 later decisions (15 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 1997 · most notably United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. (1906), Hyde v. Shine (1905)
24 federal appellate · 2 district · 28 state decisions — followed in 13 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 Stark v. Starrs · Frisbie v. Whitney · the "Abbotsford" · Lytle v. the State of Arkansas · Barney v. Dolph
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 89 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Where the right to a patent has once become vested in a purchaser of public lands, it is equivalent, so far as the government is concerned, to a patent actually issued. The execution and delivery of the patent after the right to it has become complete are the mere ministerial acts of the officers Charged with that duty.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ The sale to Mecke and patent thereon to Simmons, more than 80 years after-wards, were null and void, and conveyed no title as against Russell and his assigns. It is of no consequence whether the assignees of Russell could get a patent in their own names or not. After the certificate issued the lands were no longer a part of the public domain, and the authority of the officers of the government to grant them, otherwise than to him or some persom holding his rights,was gone. The question is not whether Wagner, if he was out of possession, could recover in ejectment upon the certificate, hut whether Simmons can recover as against him. He is in a situation to avail himself of the weakness of the title of his adversary, and need not assert his own.””
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.