Root v. Railway Co.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

155 federal appellate · 57 district · 21 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 532 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Our conclusion is tbat a bill in equity for a naked account of profits and damages against an infringer of a patent cannot be sustained; that such relief ordinarily is incidental to some othe'i equity, the right to enforce which secures to the patentee his standing in court; that the most general ground for equitable interposition is to insure to the patentee the enjoyment of his specific right by injunction against a continuance of the infringement; but that grounds of equitable relief may arise, other than by way of injunction, as where the title of the complainant is equitable merely, or equitable interposition is necessary on account of the impediments which prevent a resort to remedies purely legal; and such an equity may arise out of, and inhere in, the nature of the account itself, springing from special and peculiar circumstances which disable the patentee from a recovery at law altogether, or render his remedy in a legal tribunal difficult, inadequate, and incomplete; and as such cases cannot be defined 'more exactly, each must rest upon its own particular circumstances, as furnishing a clear and satisfactory ground of exception from the general rule.””

   12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hayward v. Andrews · Germain v. Wilgus

2. ““The result of the argument is that whenever a court of law is competent to take cognizance of a right, and has power to proceed to a judgment which affords a plain, adequate, and complete remedy, without the aid of a court of equity, the plaintiff must proceed at law, because the defendant has a constitutional right to a trial by jury.””

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Buzard v. Houston · Miller v. Schwarner

3. ““In the judiciary act of 1789, by which the first congress established the judicial courts of the United States, and defined their jurisdiction, it is enacted that ‘suits in equity shall not be sustained in either of the courts of the United States in .any case where plain, adequate, and complete remedy may be had at law.’ * * * Five days later, on September 29, 1789, the same congress proposed to the legislatures of the several states the article 'afterwards ratified as the seventh amendment of the constitution, which declares that ‘in suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved.’ * * * The effect of the provision of the judiciary act, as often stated by this court, is that ‘whenever a court of law Is competent to la,lie cognizance of a right, and has ijower to proceed to a judgment which affords a plain, adequate, and complete remedy, without the aid of a court of equity, the x>lainUff must x>rooeed at law, because the defendant has a constitutional right to a trial by jury.’ ””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Buzard v. Houston · Grether v. Wright