Stout v. Lye’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

30 federal appellate · 4 district · 16 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 86 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““If they had been made parties when suit was begun, they could have done nothing by way of defense to the action until they had acquired some specific interest in the mortgaged property. As creditors at large they were powerless in respect to the foreclosure proceedings; but when they obtained rheir judgment, not before, they wore in a position to contest in all legitimate ways the validity and extent of the superior lien which the bank asserted on the property in which by the judgment they had acquired a specific interest.”'”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hollins v. Brierfield Coal & Iron Co. · Boyd v. Northern Pac. Ry. Co.

2. ““That the suit of the hank was one to foreclose a mortgage and that it was actually pending when the judgment lien of the Stouts was acquired, are conceded facts. When the suit was begun, Lye, the mortgagor, represented the entire equity of redemption. He had parted with no portion of it voluntarily; and if the Stouts had failed to get their judgment during the January term, 1876, of the Circuit Court, no one would claim they were not bound by the decree of foreclosure, although not parties to the suit. Neither could it with any propriety be claimed, we think, that they would not be bound if their lien had only taken effect from the date of their judgment. It is true, the lien followed by operation of law from a judgment in an adversary proceeding against the mortgagor, and was not created directly by his own voluntary act; but it was the legitimate result of his failure to pay a debt he had incurred, and reached only the equity of redemption, that was being foreclosed in the pending suit. It was in legal effect no more and no less than an incumbrance of the equity of redemption by the mortgagor under the operation of the judicial proceedings which had been instituted against him to enforce the payment of a debt he owed. As this incumbrance was created pendente lite, there can be no question that it comes within the rule just stated as governing such transfers, unless the rights of the parties are changed because the lien, when created, bound the property, from January 4th, a”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. London & San Francisco Bank, Ltd. v. Dexter Horton & Co.

3. ““In considering tbe operation of this judgment, it should he home in mjnd, as stated by counsel, that there is a difference between the effect of a judgment as a bar or estoppel against the prosecution of a second action upon the same claim or demand, and its effect as an estoppel in another action between the same parties upon a different claim, or cause of action. In the former case the judgment, if rendered upon the merits, constitutes an absolute bar to a subsequent action. It is a finality as to the claim or demand in controversy, concluding parties and those in privity with them, not only as to every matter which was offered and received to sustain or defeat the claim or demand; but as to any other admissible matter which might have been offered for that purpose.- Thus, for example, a judgment rendered upon a promissory note is conclusive as to the validity of the instrument and the amount due upon it, although it be subsequently alleged that perfect defenses actually existed, of which no proof was offered, such as forgery, want of consideration, or payment. If such defenses were not presented in the action, and established by competent evidence, the subsequent allegation of their existence is of no legal consequence. The judgment is as conclusive, so far as future proceedings at law are concerned, as though the defenses never existed.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Compton v. Jesup