James v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “■ “While the law requires every man to deal with his own so as not to injure another, it imposes a greater obligation on the other to take care of his own property than on a stranger to take care of it for him. And to make it the duty of the first mortgagee to inquire before he acts, lest he may injure some one, would reverse this rule, and make it his duty to do for the second mortgagee what the latter should do for himself. To affect the conscience, therefore, of the first mortgagee, — for this whole doctrine is one of equity jurisprudence, and not of positive law, — it would seem that he should have actual knowledge of the second mortgage. We do not say notice from the second mortgagee is absolutely necessary to enable him to claim the rights of which we have been speaking; but we do think that the existence of the second mortgage should clearly be brought home to the knowledge of the first mortgagee in such a way. as to show an intentional disregard by him of the interests of the subsequent mortgagee.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Balen v. Lewis