Railroad Companies v. Schutte’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

51 federal appellate · 22 district · 47 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 223 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It can not be said that a case is not authority on the point because, although that pcpint was properly presented and decided in the regular course of the consideration of the cause, something else was found in the end which disposed of the whole matter. Here the precise question was properly presented, fully argued and elaborately considered in the opinion. The decision on this question was as much a part of the judgment of the court as was that on any other of the several matters on which the case as a whole depended.”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Myers v. United States · Clara S. Lee v. James A. Baker, Iii, Secretary of the Treasury

2. ““It is clear, therefore, the intention was that, as between the state and th0 company, the state was to be the guarantor of the company’s bond and the principal debtor. With the public, however, it was different. There the state was the debtor, and the company was only known through the statutes under ■which the bonds were put out, and .the certificates indorsed on the bonds themselves, which were that the state held ‘ the first-mortgage bonds of the railroad company for a like amount as security to the holder thereof.’ Such bonds of the state, with such indorsements, the company put on the market and sold. Under these circumstances the certificate of the governor, as to the security held by the state, is, in legal effect, the certificate of the company itself, and equivalent to an engagement on the part of the company that the bond, so far as the security is concerned, is the valid obligation of the state. The case is clearly within the reason of the rule which makes every indorser of commercial paper the guarantor of the genuineness and validity of the instrument he indorses.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Tompkins v. Little Rock & Ft. S. Ry.

3. ““TheFlorida, Atlantic & Gulf Central Railroad Company, incorporated by the general assembly oí Florida in 1853, built a railroad from Jacksonville to Lake City. The Pensacola & Georgia Railroad Company, also incorporated during the same year, built a road from Lake City through Tallahassee to Quincy, in the direction of Mobile, with a branch to Monticello; and the Tallahassee Railroad' Company, incorporated at a somewhat earlier date, built •another road from Tallahassee to St. Marks. Each of these companies became indebted to the state of Florida under the provisions of the internal improvement law; and, as a consequence, the road of the Florida, Atlantic & Gulf Central Company was sold on the 4th of March, 1868, by the trustees of the internal improvement fund, under the authority of law, to William E. Jackson and his associates; that of the Pensacola & Georgia Company on the 6th ■of February, 1869, to F. Eibble and his associates; and that of the Tallahassee Company on the same day and to the same parties.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Central Trust Co. v. Florida Ry. & Nav. Co.