Cochran v. Ellsworth’s Empirical Analysis
1954
Citation profile
9 federal appellate · 70 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 90 later decisions — most recently September 2009 · most notably American Motorists Insurance v. ARTRA Group, Inc. (1995), Tanenbaum v. Sylvan Builders, Inc. (1959)
9 federal appellate · 70 state decisions — followed in 11 states
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 29 Cal. 2d 95 - Woodbine v. Van Horn · 123 Cal. App. 2d 300 - Lawrence Block Co. v. Palston · Bank of Yolo v. Sperry Flour Co. · California Auto Court Association v. Cohn · 46 Cal. App. 198 - Fitzhugh v. University of Realty 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 90 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is also established law in this state that a written contract between the seller and the purchaser is not essential to the recovery of the broker’s commission if he has produced to the seller a purchaser who is ready, willing, and able to purchase upon the terms proposed by the seller and who has agreed to those terms and is willing and offers to enter into a binding written contract. The broker has performed his duty and has earned his commission regardless of whether a written contract is actually entered into or whether the sale is ever consummated by the delivery of the property and the payment of the purchase price.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage““There are some cogent reasons for not paying blind obeisance to the authority of the place of contracting in this day when ease of transportation and communication virtually erase state boundaries as commercial limitations. The lex loci contractus rule is not universally recognized and has been criticized in that it frequently elevates fortuitous and insignificant circumstances to crucial importance in establishing controlling law.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage““When a condition precedent is adopted by the parties to a contract, the court will exact a substantial if not strict observance of the provisions before finding liability. * * * * * * “Where broker has seen fit to allow payment of his compensation to be contingent upon performance of a contract between parties other than himself, he cannot complain if, through the nonperformance of that contract, his own contingent rights be lost.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.