Fitzstephens v. Whan’s Empirical Analysis
1923
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 5 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently May 1954
2 federal appellate · 5 state decisions
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 Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Co. v. Bagley · Grow v. Davis
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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““To make a valid contract . . . there must be mutual obligations. What obligation did plaintiff undertake? What consideration passed from him to defendant? The evidence discloses none. Defendant could , not enforce any sort of liability against plaintiff. He was under no duty to do anything. Any relationship of plaintiff to the so-called contract could neither be the subject of specific performance at the instance of defendant nor could the latter recover anything for the breach of it. Essential elements of a contract are consideration and mutuality. These were wanting. . . . The contract was therefore abortive, a nudum, pactum.” (p. 651.)”
1 later decision 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.