Shepherd v. May’s Empirical Analysis
115 U.S. 505 · 1885
Citation profile
18 federal appellate · 8 district · 63 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 111 later decisions (9 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 1996 · most notably Keller v. Ashford (1890), Willard v. Wood (1896)
18 federal appellate · 8 district · 63 state decisions — followed in 21 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 Lawrence v. . Fox · Oates v. National Bank · Calvo v. . Davies · Elliott v. Sackett
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 111 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““And if Walker had expressly promised May to pay the debt, that would not, without the assent of May, have converted Shepherd from a principal debtor into a surety merely. (Cucullu v. Hernandez, 103 U. S. 105 , 26 L. Ed. 322 ; Rey v. Simpson, 22 How. 341 , 16 L. Ed. 260 .) The only way in which Walker could become the principal debtor of May, and Shepherd the surety, was by the mutual agreement of all three.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Mulvane v. Sedgley““An agreement merely to take land, subject to a specified incumbrance, is not an agreement to assume and pay the incumbrance. The grantee of an equity of redemption, without words in the grant importing in some form- that he assumes the payment, * * ⅞ does not bind himself personally to pay the debt. There must be words importing that he will pay the debt, to make him personally liable.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. George v. Blumberg
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.