123 Ind. App. 212 - Capes v. Barger’s Empirical Analysis
1953
Citation profile
34 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 34 later decisions — most recently October 2000 · most notably HINDS, ETC. v. McNAIR (1955), Heller v. Fire Insurance Exchange (1990)
34 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 Taylor v. Fickas · Mitchell v. Bain · New Jersey, Indiana & Illinois Railroad v. Tutt · Watts v. Evansville, Mt. Carmel & Northern Railway Co. · Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Woodbury Glass 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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[w]ater from falling rains or melting snows which is diffused over the surface as the natural elevations and depressions of the land may guide it but which has no definite banks or channels. If the natural depressions and elevations of the land form a way for water but such way has no well defined banks or channel and carries no water except that which drains into it from adjoining lands in wet seasons or as the result of freshets, then such way is not a natural water course but a mere surface drain and falls within the doctrine that surface water is a common enemy which any proprietor may combat as best he can.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“Water from falling rains or melting snows which is diffused over the surface of the ground or which temporarily flows upon or over the surface as the natural elevations and depressions of the land may guide it but which has no definite banks or channel, is surface water.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage““The parties are agreed that the appel-lees, being owners of the lower land, have a legal right to dam against surface water draining off the appellants’ laud and are not responsible for damages by reason of the accumulation of water above the obstruction. Ramsey v. Ketcham (1920), 73 Ind.App. 200 , 127 N.E. 204 ; Watts v. Evansville, etc., R. Co. (1921), 191 Ind. 27 , 129 N.E. 315 .””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Rounds v. Hoelscher
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.