Lambert v. Barrett’s Empirical Analysis
1913
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 11 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently August 2009
4 federal appellate · 11 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 Smith v. Bryan · Andrews v. Roanoke Building Ass'n & Investment Co. · White Oak Coal Co. v. City of Manchester · Fulkerson v. Treasurer of Bristol
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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Who, then, are the “city officers,” in the true and literal sense of the term? It is not easy to define them in all cases; but there are many such provided for in the charter of the city of Lynchburg, and in the charters of other cities. Among these are, perhaps, city engineers and surveyors, officers having superintendence and control of streets, parks, waterworks, gas-works, hospitals, sewers, cemeteries, city inspectors, and no doubt many others well known in large cities. Their duties and functions relate exclu sively to the local affairs of the city, and the city alone is interested in their conduct and administration. On the other hand, there are many officers, such as city judge, sergeant, clerk, commonwealth’s attorney, treasurer, sheriff, high constable, and the like, some of whom are recognized by the constitution, while others are not. All these are generally mentioned as city officers, and they are even so designated in the constitution; but no one has ever contended that either of them is in any manner subject to the control and removal of the mayor. The reason is, that while they are elected or appointed for the city, and while their jurisdiction is confined to the local limits, their duties and functions, in a measure, concern the whole state. They are state agencies or instrumentalities operating to some extent through the medium of city charters in the preservation of the public peace and good government. However elected or appointed, however paid, they are a”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. McConnell v. Adams
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.