Waters v. . Lumber Co.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In the light of the meager statement before us, we must hold that the court erred in instructing the jury that the plaintiff (the landowner) was entitled to compensatory damages for the injury done to the land in cutting and removing so much timber as it was reasonably necessary to remove in order to construct a way for the passage of lumber trains. Whether a way 21 feet wide was necessary for the purpose, was a question for the jury under proper instructions. Construing the contract as we do, we conclude that, with the right to build a road sufficient for the passage of trains, the plaintiff by necessary implication agreed to surrender his claim to such damage to his land as might be incident to the skillful construction of what he had empowered Simmons to build. The same implication *Page 110 must grow out of the right to build a private railway as is held to arise in the case of a grant or condemnation for the use of a common carrier.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Craft v. . Timber Co.