Britton v. Thornton’s Empirical Analysis
112 U.S. 526 · 1884
Citation profile
15 federal appellate · 12 district · 45 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 90 later decisions (6 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 1975 · most notably Messenger v. Anderson (1912), Vanderzee v. Slingerland (1886)
15 federal appellate · 12 district · 45 state decisions — followed in 13 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 Aurora City v. West · Hopkins v. Lee · Tioga Railroad v. Blossburg and Corning Railroad · Miles v. Caldwell
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 90 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““When, indeed, a devise is made to one person in fee, and, ‘in case of his death,’ to another in fee, the absurdity of speaking of the one event which is sure to occur to all living, as uncertain and contingent, has led the courts to interpret the devise over as referring only to death in the testator’s life-time. * * * But when the death of the first taker is coupled with other circumstances which may or may not over take place, as, for instance, death under age or without children, the devise over, unless controlled by other provisions of the* will, takes effect, according to the ordinary and literal meaning of the words, upon death, under the circumstances indicated, at any time, whether before or after the death of the testator.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“all devises of real estate shall pass the whole estate of the testator in the premises devised, although there be no words of inheritance or of perpetuity, unless it appear by a devise over, or by words of limitation or otherwise in the will, that the testator intended to devise a less estate,”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“die in her minority, and without lawful issue then living, the'lands hereby devised shall revert to and become part of the residue of my estate,”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.