West v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
101 U.S. 263 · 1879
Citation profile
71 federal appellate · 6 district · 40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 146 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 1996 · most notably Freeman v. Bee Machine Co. (1943), Smith v. Whittier (1892)
71 federal appellate · 6 district · 40 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 Solomon Etting v. President Directors and Company of the Bank of the United States · Stoops v. Smith · Barreda v. Silsbee · Perry v. Simpson Waterproof Manufacturing Co.
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 146 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Although it is the province of the court to construe written instruments, yet when the effect of such instruments depends, not merely on the construction and meaning of the instruments, but upon collateral facts in pais and extrinsic circumstances, the inferences of fact to be drawn from them are to be left to the jury.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“By all or nearly all the cases the rule as established is not that an admission made during or in consequence of an effort to compromise is admissible, but that an offer to do something by the way of compromise, as to pay sums of money, allow certain prices, deliver certain property, or make certain deductions, and the like, shall be excluded. These cannot be called admissions, as they were made to avoid controversy and to save the expenses of vexatious litigation.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““Decided, cases may be found where it is said that the evidence is admissible unless the,offer made was stated to be without prejudice; but the rule in general, both in England and the United States, is that the offer will be presumed to have been made without prejudice, if it was plainly an offer of compromise.” West v. Smith, 101 U. S. 263 , 273 ( 25 L. Ed. 809 ); Home Insurance Co. v. Baltimore Warehouse Co., 93 U. S. 527 , 548 ( 23 L. Ed. 868 ).”
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.