Trustees v. Greenough’s Empirical Analysis
105 U.S. 527 · 1881
Citation profile
579 federal appellate · 107 district · 407 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,589 later decisions (65 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society (1975), Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond (1974)
579 federal appellate · 107 district · 407 state decisions — followed in 44 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 In re Paschal · Cowdrey et al. v. Galveston Houston and Henderson Railroad Company et al.
Cited together with Sprage v. Ticonic Nat Bank · Central Railroad Banking Co of Georgia v. Pettus · Mills v. Electric Auto-Lite Co. · Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society · Boeing Co. v. Van Gemert
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 1,589 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“has far better means of knowing what is just and reasonable than an appellate court can have.”
16 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[W]here one of many parties having a common interest in a trust fund, at his own expense takes proper proceedings to save it from destruction and restore it to the purposes of the trust, he is entitled to reimbursement, either out of the fund itself, or by proportional contribution from those who accept the benefit of his efforts.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Allowances of this kincl, if maUe with moderation, and a jealous regard to the rights of those who are interested in the fund, are not only admissible, hut agreeable to the principles of equity and justice.””
11 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.