Phillips v. Mooney’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““As a general rule, in actions for assault or assault and battery, the character of the parties thereto is not in issue, and evidence with respect thereto is inadmissible either for or against a party, unless it is first attacked or supported by the adversary, or placed in issue by the nature of the proceeding itself, as where there is a dispute as to who was the aggressor.” “Where justification is pleaded by way of self-defense, it is competent to show the character of plaintiff as being quarrelsome or turbulent, provided such fact has been brought to the knowledge of defendant prior to the assault, and this is so even though plaintiff has offered no evidence of his good character in that respect. This principle applies where the defense is that force was used to resist an assault on one whom defendant has right to defend. “Where the question of who was the aggressor is a disputed issue in the case, evidence of plaintiff’s character or reputation for turbulence is admissible, even though defendant did not have knowledge of such character before the assault.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bugg v. Brown