Williams v. Greer’s Empirical Analysis
1938
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 9 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently May 1992
2 federal appellate · 9 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 Lang v. Rickmers · Frech v. Lewis · Campsey v. Brumley · Denny v. White House Lumber Co. · American Railway Express Co. v. Voelkel
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.
““A lien, in its most extensive significance, is a charge upon property for the payment or discharge of a debt or duty. Liens may be broadly classified as common law, equitable and statutory, depending on the source from which they are derived. A common law lien is a right extended to a party to retain that which is in his possession belonging to another, until the demand or charge of the person in possession is satisfied. Common law liens are used to designate all the various charges of debt upon land or personal effects which are created by statute or recognized in equity, although neither connected with nor dependent upon possession. Thus, we have the lien of a judgment, the lien of an execution, the lien of a partner, the lien of a pledgee, the lien of a legal or equitable mortgage, and various other named charges which are denominated liens. After a transaction resolves itself into a security, whatever may be its form, and whatever name the parties may choose to give it, is in equity a lien. Hence, one deprived of the possession of real or personal property by artifice or fraud of another, equity implies and declares out of general consideration of right and justice, as between the parties, a lien on the property to secure the charge legally or equitably assessed against it. It is not necessary that a lien is created by express contract or by operation of the statute; courts of equity will apply the relations of the parties and the circumstances of their dealings in estab”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.