Means v. Dowd’s Empirical Analysis
128 U.S. 273 · 1888
Citation profile
9 federal appellate · 12 district · 14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 73 later decisions (23 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 1987 · most notably Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Mottley (1908), In re Debs (1895)
9 federal appellate · 12 district · 14 state decisions — followed in 12 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 Robinson v. Elliott · Prewit v. Wilson · Allen v. Massey · Bank of Leavenworth v. Hunt
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 73 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"The prevailing doctrine, however, is unquestionably that which we have stated; and its fundamental essence is that an insolvent debtor making an assignment, even for the benefit of his creditors, cannot reserve to himself any beneficial interest in the property assigned, or interpose any delay, or make provisions which would hinder and delay creditors from their lawful modes of prosecuting their claims.””
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.