Belk v. Meagher’s Empirical Analysis
104 U.S. 279 · 1881
Citation profile
101 federal appellate · 58 district · 233 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 518 later decisions (35 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2017 · most notably Bram v. United States (1897), Donnelly v. United States (1913)
101 federal appellate · 58 district · 233 state decisions — followed in 17 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 Forbes v. Gracey · Atherton v. Fowler · Lansdale v. Daniels
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 518 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Mining claims are not open to relocation until the rights of a former locator haye come' to an end. A relocator seeks to -avail himself of mineral in the public lands which another has discovered. .This he cannot dp until the discoverer has, in law, abandoned his.claim, and.left.,the property, ppen for another to take up. The right of location upon the mineral lands of the United States is a privilege granted by Congress, but it can only be exercised within the limits prescribed by the grant. A location can only be made where the law allows it to be done. Any attempt to go beyond that will be of no avail. Hence a relocation on lands actually covered at the time by another valid and subsisting location is void, and this not only against the prior locator, but all the world, because the law allows no such thing to be done.””
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““He had made no such location as prevented the lauds from being in law vacant. Others had the right to enter for the purpose of taking them up, if it could be done peaceably and without force.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Fee v. Durham · Malone v. Jackson““When a location is perfected, it has the effect of a grant by the United States of the right of present and exclusive possession.” Manuel v. Wulff, 152 U. S. 505 , 511, 14 Sup. Ct. 651 , 653 ( 38 L. Ed. 532 ).”
4 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.