Epletveit v. Solberg’s Empirical Analysis
1946
Citation profile
20 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently July 2017
20 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 Charleston & Western Carolina Railway Co. v. Hughes · Kern v. Robertson · Combs v. Combs · Hogan v. Thrasher · Philbrick v. American Bank & Trust Co.
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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“... it is clear that the plaintiffs Eplet-veit and Flesch may not invoke the jurisdiction of a court of equity to perpetrate a fraud upon their neighbor Solberg nor deprive him of the fruits of his labor and industry in plowing, preparing and improving the land for which Epletveit had obligated himself to deliver a deed of conveyance. Sol-berg had deposited in the bank the balance of the agreed purchase price awaiting the time when the plaintiff Epletveit shall have performed his contract to quiet the title. Nothing further remained to be done by Solberg. The contract for the sale of the land being legal and Epletveit, having accepted and acknowledged receipt of a valuable consideration therefor, was in duty bound to perform.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Where one party, to an oral contract has, in reliance thereon, so far performed his part of the agreement that it would be perpetrating a fraud upon him to allow the other party to repudiate the contract and to set up the statute of frauds in justification thereof, equity will regard the case as being removed from the operation of the statute and will enforce the contract by decreeing specific performance of it, or by granting other appropriate relief.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Wood v. Anderson
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.