Buchanan v. Litchfield’s Empirical Analysis
102 U.S. 278 · 1880
Citation profile
17 federal appellate · 8 district · 59 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 179 later decisions (26 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 1993 · most notably City of Walla Walla v. Walla Walla Water Co (1898), Hedges v. Dixon County (1893)
17 federal appellate · 8 district · 59 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 Town of Coloma v. Eaves · Whitney Arms Co. v. . Barlow · Board of Commissioners v. Aspinwall · Law v. People ex rel. Huck
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 179 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The words employed are too explicit to leave any doubt as to the object of the constitutional restriction upon municipal indebtedness. The purpose of its framers beyond all question was to withhold from the legislative department the power to- confer upon municipal corporations authority to incur indebtedness in excess •of a prescribed amount.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““In determining whether the constitutional limit of indebtedness lias been exceeded by a municipal corporation, an inquiry would always be necessary as to the amount of taxable property within its boundaries. Such inquiry would be solved, not by information derived from individual officers of the municipality, but only in the mode prescribed in the constitution; that is, by reference to the last assessment for state and county taxes for the year preceding the issuing of the bonds. The purchaser of the bonds was certainly bound to take notice, not only of the constitutional limitation upon municipal indebtedness, but of such facts as the authorized official assessments disclose concerning the valuation of taxable property within the city for the year 1873.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““Our attention is called by counsel to the exceeding hardship of this case upon those whose money, it is alleged, has supplied the city of Litchfield with a system of waterworks, the benefits of which are daily enjoyed by its inhabitants. The defense is characterized as fraudulent and dishonest. Waiving all considerations of the case in its moral aspects, it is only necessary to say that the settled principles of law cannot, with safety to the public, be disregarded in order to remedy the hardships of special cases.””
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.