Debnam v. Simonson’s Empirical Analysis
1914
Citation profile
23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently October 1991
23 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 Knickerbocker Ice Co. v. Gardiner Dairy Co. · Cumberland Glass Manufacturing Co. v. DeWitt · Sumwalt Ice & Coal Co. v. Knickerbocker Ice 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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The mere fact that the plaintiff has suffered damage or has lost an opportunity to profit financially because of his failure to consummate his plans owing to the purchase of said lot of land by the defendants does not in itself give him the right of recovery from the defendants for the damage sustained by him. The act must be of such a character as to create an actionable wrong before the right of recovery against the defendants exists, and, to create an actionable wrong, the legal rights of the plaintiff must in some way be invaded. There must be a violation of a legal right committed knowingly to create a cause of action. . . . “ [ 92 A. 784 .] [T]his declaration is also defective because it does not allege with sufficient clearness, if at all, that, but for the alleged interference of the defendants, the plaintiff would have become the purchaser of the property, and would have succeeded in consummating his alleged contemplated plans or project. Such an allegation is necessary. Before he can recover it must be shown that, but for that interference, the purchase would have been made and his plans consummated.” 7”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““In addition to what we have said, this declaration is also defective because it does not allege with sufficient clearness, if at all, that but for the alleged interference of the defendants, the plaintiff would have become the purchaser of the property, and would have succeeded in consummating his alleged contemplated plans or project. Such an allegation is necessary. Before he can recover it must be shown that, but for that interference, the purchase would have been made and his plans consummated.””
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.