Stover v. Gilbert’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

53 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 54 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “‘The general rule adopted by both state and federal courts is that meander lines are not run as boundaries of the tract surveyed, but for the purpose of defining the sinuosities of the banks of the stream or other body of water, and as a means of ascertaining the quantity of land embraced in the survey. The stream, or other body of water, and not the meander line as actually run on the ground, is the boundary, the purpose of meander lines being merely for the benefit of the government in ascertaining the quantity of land in the survey for which it requires payment.’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Allen v. Morales

2. “‘In surveying land adjacent to a stream, whether navigable or not, lines are often run from one point to another along or near the bank or margin of the stream, in such a manner as to leave a quantity of land lying between these lines and the thread or bank of the stream. These are called meander lines, and they are not the boundaries of the tract, but they merely define the sinuosities of the stream which constitute the boundary, ... ’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Allen v. Morales

3. ““It appears that no marks of any kind can be found on the ground showing the location of the different calls for course and distance given for the eastern boundary of the Williams survey, although there is virgin timber along these lines for a considerable part of the entire distance.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Johnson v. Phillips Petroleum Co.