Barton v. Barbour’s Empirical Analysis
104 U.S. 126 · 1881
Citation profile
163 federal appellate · 61 district · 120 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 841 later decisions (25 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably Granfinanciera, S.A. v. Nordberg (1989), Katchen v. Landy (1966)
163 federal appellate · 61 district · 120 state decisions — followed in 32 states
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 Davis v. Gray · Rubber Company v. Goodyear · Wiswall v. Sampson · Wallace v. Loomis
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 841 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[I]n cases of bankruptcy, many incidental questions arise in the course of administering the bankrupt estate, which would ordinarily be pure cases at law, and in respect of their facts triable by jury, but, as belonging to the bankruptcy proceedings, they become cases over which the bankruptcy court, which acts as a court of equity, exercises exclusive control. Thus a claim of debt or damages against the bankrupt is investigated by chancery methods.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is a general rule that before suit is brought against a receiver leave of the court by which he was appointed must be obtained.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“We think, therefore, that it is immaterial whether the suit is brought against [the receiver] to recover specific property or to obtain judgment for a money demand. In either case leave should first be obtained.”
5 later decisions 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.