Sprague v. Woll’s Empirical Analysis
122 F.2d 128 · 1941
Citation profile
9 federal appellate · 1 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 1971
9 federal appellate · 1 district · 2 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
Applies 45 U.S.C. § 151 (Railway Labor Act) · 45 U.S.C. § 228A · 45 U.S.C. § 261
Relies on Shields v. Utah Idaho Central Railroad · Piedmont Northern Ry Co v. Interstate Commerce Commission · Baldwin v. Scott County Milling Co. · United States v. Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad · 25 F. Supp. 825 - Texas Electric Ry. Co. v. Eastus
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““With this knowledge of the situation the Commission never, until it requested the Attorney General to institute the present suit, by word or act intimated that the procedure-followed by the railroad was illegal- or the state regulatory bodies without jurisdiction. It would be difficult indeed to conceive a clearer case of uniform administrative construction of § 20a as applied to this com pany. Conceding that the proper classification of the railway is not free from difficulty, all doubt is removed by the application of the rule that settled administrative construction is entitled to great weight and should not be overturned except for cogent reasons. * * * “The primary responsibility rested upon the Commission to determine whether under the circumstances the railroad was required to procure leave under § 20a for the issuance of securities. Evidently entertaining serious doubts on this question it has for more than a decade resolved them in favor of the carrier, and the company and its officers have acted in reliance on the administrative tribunal’s construction of the statute. At this late day the courts ought not to uphold an application of the law contradictory of this settled administrative interpretation.” (Emphasis supplied.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““Under all the circumstances we are of the opinion that the holding of the Court did not bind the Commission as to subsequent determinations, and that the duty imposed upon the Commission by the Acts here involved was to be discharged in a proceeding de novo, and in accordance with all the evidence to be adduced in such proceeding.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.