Nelson v. Halvorson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district · 16 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““From the evidence the jury might have found that the constable made the arrest in good faith, supposing he had a warrant, but immediately released plaintiff upon discovering that the document he acted under was not a warrant. If so, the jury would not be justified in assessing punitive damages against the officer, even if they found that he had not probable ground for believing plaintiff guilty of a felony, while at the same time the jury might find from the evidence that Ness knowingly made use of pretended process to force plaintiff to settle a disputed claim, and that he and his attorney pursued this purpose, after the officer ceased to act; thus warranting the jury in assessing substantial punitive damages against Ness. The difference in financial condition of the two defendants would alone justify the jury in imposing different amounts as punishment upon them, in case the conclusion was reached that both ought to be penalized.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Vingi v. Lisianski Packing Co.