Murphy v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis
1910
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 62 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 65 later decisions — most recently October 1983 · most notably Anglin v. Cisco Mortgage Loan Co. (1940), Cont'nal Natl. Bk. of Ft. Worth v. Conner (1948)
3 federal appellate · 62 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.
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 65 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"The Constitution does not prescribe the form or substance of the contract further than stated, but when it says that a contract must be made for the work and material, and that the lien is to be for an improvement thereon, it plainly contemplates that the improvement, or the work and material, as the case may be, that is furnished, must be in substance that which has previously been agreed upon; and it follows that this is not met by an agreement for a house of a specified construction, and the furnishing of only part of the work and material entering into such construction. Williams bought the notes before the contract was performed, and his lien depended upon the performance either by Arend or himself of that which Arend had undertaken to do to create or perfect it. With respect to it his position is no better than Arend's would be."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“the work and material, so far as done and supplied, were in compliance with the contract.”
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.