Brown's Case’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

53 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 55 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “‘ ‘ By all authorities an occurrence to be accidental must be unusual, undesigned, unexpected, sudden. The word is commonly predicated of occurrences external to the body, e. g. wrecks, explosions, collisions, and other fortuitous mishaps in the world of things about us. Such external accidents may or may not cause bodily injuries. But an internal injury that is itself sudden, unusual, and unexpected, is none the less accidental because its external cause is a part of the victim’s ordinary work. “If a laborer performing his usual task, in his wonted way, by reason of strain, breaks his wrist, nobody would question the accidental nature of the injury. If instead of the wrist it is an artery that breaks, the occurrence is just as clearly an accident. So held by this court in the case of Patrick v. [J. B.] Ham [Co.], [ 119 Me. 510, 517 , 111 A. 912 , 13 A. L. R. 427]. And if the strain, instead of causing the rupture of a subordinate blood vessel, produces a sudden dilatation of the heart itself, the occurrence is none the less accidental. “ ‘A strain incurred by the workman in the ordinary discharge of his duties caused the rupture from which he died. * * * It is not open to this court to say that this is not an accident.’ Hughes v. Clover, 2 B. W. C. C.17.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sanchez v. Board of County Commissioners · Patterson Transfer Co. v. Lewis

2. “arising out of and in the course of the employment,”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Price v. B. F. Shaw Co.