Crane v. . McDonald’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 48 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 59 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It was not necessary tor the plaintiff to decide, at his peril, either close questions of fact or nice questions of law; but it was sufficient if there was a reasonable doubt as to which claimant the debt belonged. When a person, without collusion, is subjected to a double demand to pay an acknowledged debt, it is the object of a bill of interpleader to relieve him of the risk of deciding who is entitled to the money. If the doubt rests upon a question of fact that is at all serious, it is obvious that the debtor cannot safely decide it for himself, because it might be decided the other way upon an actual trial, while, if it rests upon a question of law, as was- said in Dorn v. Fox, 61 N. T. 270, ‘so long as a principle is still under discussion, * * * it would seem fair to hold that there was sufficient doubt and hazard to justify the protection which is afforded by the beneficent action of interpleader.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Singer v. New York Life Ins.