Whaley v. Catlett’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 federal appellate · 43 state decisions

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 56 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Tbe question narrows itself to this: Is the action which the statute authorizes that of the deceased, or is there under the acts a new, substantive, original cause of action in the widow, children, or next of kin, independent of that existing in and passing from the deceased, though resting upon or growing out of the same injury? In other words, does the deceased’s cause of action alone survive, and pass to the parties named, or does the statute create a new cause of action in their behalf and for their benefit? We are of the opinion that a careful reading of the statutes can lead to no other conclusion than that they provide alone for the continued existence and passing of the right of action of the deceased, and not for any new, independent cause of action in his widow, children, or next of kin. Section 4025, Shannon’s Code, refers to it as the right of action which the deceased would have had in case death had not ensued, and provides that -it shall not abate or be extinguished, but shall pass to his widow, etc. It does not provide for or refer to any new cause of action arising or coming into existence in their favor. It is alone by virtue of these statutes that a right of action exists in the widow, children, or next of kin at all for the unlawful killing of the deceased, and this right exists under the statute not because it arises directly to them, in their own right, but because it passes to them in the right of the deceased.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Elliott v. Felton