STATE EX REL., SMITH v. Riley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 4 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Public nuisance has its roots in English common law.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. New Mexico v. General Electric Co. · Titus v. City of Albuquerque

2. “Common law public nuisance covered a wide range of conduct which interfered with the interests of the community at large: “interests that were recognized as rights of the general public entitled to protection.” Restatement (Second) of Torts § 821B cmt. b (1979). A public nuisance included “interference with the public health, ... with the public safety, ... with the public morals, ... with the public peace, ... with the public comfort, ... with the public convenience, ... and with a wide variety of other miscellaneous public rights of a similar kind.” Id. This common law concept is carried into New Mexico law. See § 30-8-1; State ex rel. Village of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque v. City of Albuquerque, 119 N.M. 150, 163 , 889 P.2d 185, 198 (1994) (A “public right is one common to — belonging to — ‘all members of the general public.’ ” (quoting Restatement, supra, § 821B cmt. g)). A public nuisance affects “a considerable number of people or an entire community or neighborhood.” Padilla v. Lawrence, 101 N.M. 556, 562 , 685 P.2d 964, 970 (Ct.App.1984).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. New Mexico v. General Electric Co.

3. “Conduct does not become a public nuisance merely because it interferes with the use and enjoyment of land by a large number of persons. There must be some interference with a public right. A public right is one common to all members of the general public.... Thus the pollution of a stream that merely deprives fifty or a hundred lower riparian owners of the use of the water for purposes connected with their land does not for that reason alone become a public nuisance. If, however, the pollution prevents the use of a public bathing beach or kills the fish in a navigable stream and so deprives all members of the community of the right to fish, it becomes a public nuisance.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. New Mexico v. General Electric Co.