Phelps v. Harris’s Empirical Analysis
101 U.S. 370 · 1879
Citation profile
28 federal appellate · 11 district · 68 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 159 later decisions (12 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2017 · most notably Railroad Commission v. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (1922), Willing v. Chicago Auditorium Ass'n (1928)
28 federal appellate · 11 district · 68 state decisions — followed in 26 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 · John Orton v. George Smith · Ward v. Chamberlain · Huntington v. Allen
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 159 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Proceeds are not necessarily money. This is also a word of great generality.””
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"Now, whilst it may be true that when the words `disposed of are used in connection with the word `sell,' in the phrase `to sell and dispose of,' they may often be construed to mean a disposal by sale; it does not necessarily follow that when power is given generally, and without qualification by associated words, to dispose of property, leaving the mode of disposition to the discretion of the agent, that the power should not extend to a disposal by barter or exchange, as well as to a disposal by sale. The word is nomen generalissimum, and standing by itself, without qualification, has no technical signification.... [T]his would include the power to barter or exchange as well as the power to sell."”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ The questions, what constitutes such a cloird upon the title, and what character of title the complainant himself must have in order to authorize a court of equity to assume jurisdiction of the ease, are to he decided upon principles which have long been established in those courts. Prominent among these are — First, that the title or right of the complainant must be clear; and, secondly, that the pretended title or right, which is alleged to be a cloud upon it, must not only-be clearly invalid or inequitable, but must be such as may, either at the present or at a future time, embarrass the real o wner in controverting it. Por it is held that when the complainant himself has no title, or a doubtful title, he cannot have this relief.” “ Those only,” said Mr. Justice Grier, “ who have a clear, legal, and equitable title to land, connected with possession, have any right to claim the interference of a court of equity to give .them peace, or dissipate a cloud in their title.””
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.