Ager v. Murray’s Empirical Analysis
105 U.S. 126 · 1881
Citation profile
36 federal appellate · 9 district · 40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 136 later decisions (6 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2018 · most notably Campbell v. City of Haverhill (1895), Sparhawk v. Yerkes (1891)
36 federal appellate · 9 district · 40 state decisions — followed in 15 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 Massie v. Watts · Stephens v. Cady · Wiggin v. Heywood · Pacific Bank v. Robinson
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 136 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Both defendants in the case at bar are before the court and have filed answers. The debtor’s interest in the patent rights is property assignable by him, and which cannot be taken on execution at law. The case is thus brought directly within the opinion delivered by Mr. Justice Nelson in Stephens v. Cady, of the soundness of which we entertain no doubt. The clause of the decree below appointing a trustee to execute an assignment if the patentee should not himself execute one as directed by the decree has not been objected to in argument, and is clearly within the chancery powers of the court as defined in the statute of Maryland of 1785, which is in force in the District of Columbia.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“is not the subject of seizure or sale by means of”
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.