Cotten v. Stolley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 16 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Is the evidence in this case, which establishes that Alta Cotten was walking either upon the right-hand side of the pavement or upon the graveled shoulder to said pavement, proof of contributory negligence on her part? There is no presumption of contributory negligence in this case. In Engel v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co., 111 Neb. 21 , it was held: ‘Where there is no eyewitness, no direct evidence of the accident causing the injury, the facts and circumstances may be proved by circumstantial evidence, and the pre sumption is raised by the instinct of self-preservation on behalf of the deceased that he was not guilty of contributory negligence, but was in the exercise of due care and caution for his own safety, unless the contrary is shown.’ The rule applicable to this situation is stated by one authority as follows: ‘Pedestrians have the right to use a public street at any time of day or night. * * * They have a legal right to travel in the street, * * * and the mere fact that one does so, does not render him guilty of contributory negligence as a matter of law.’ 13 R. C. L. 291, sec. 242. In an annotation, 67 A. L. R. 109: ‘The rule is generally recognized that, in the absence of applicable statute or ordinance, a pedestrian has the right to walk longitudinally in a street or highway, and is not, as a matter of law, guilty of contributory negligence in doing so.’ In Hatzakorzian v. Rucker-Fuller Desk Co., 197 Cal. 82 , 41 A. L. R. 1027, it is held that the common-law rule that”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Nichols v. Havlat