Merrill v. Merrill’s Empirical Analysis
1894
Citation profile
16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently October 1937
16 state decisions
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 Cleary v. Folger · Drew v. Pedlar · Glassell v. Coleman · Phelps v. Brown · Merrill v. Merrill
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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“■ “This cannot be the failure of consideration contemplated in Civ. Code, sec. 3050. That was intended to secure a party from injury through the wrong or inability to perform of the other party. If the vendee did do himself the injury, he is not injured in the eye of the law. He cannot acquire an equity based upon his own wrong. The Civil Code, in general, was intended to announce rules of law already declared by the courts. This presumption is not of such force as to control the language of the statute, but in all cases of doubt that construction should be preferred which accords with known rules. In equity a vendee had a lien when in possession under a contract if the consideration failed. It was the counterpart of the lien given to the vendor, and the rule in equity is that no such lien exists in favor of one who is in default. One who has himself abandoned the contract, or has refused to perform it according to its terms, is not afforded a lien to secure him from loss because of his own breach of the contract. 3 Pom. Eq. Jur., see. 1260, and note. I think the judgment should be affirmed.” (Italics supplied.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Shepherd v. Dougan“‘ ‘ One who pays to the owner any part of the price of real property, under an agreement for the sale thereof, has a special lien upon the property, independent of possession, for such part of the amount paid, as he may be entitled to recover back, in case of a failure of consideration.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Shepherd v. Dougan
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.