Woodson v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1920
Citation profile
18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently December 2015
18 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 Oliver Refining Co. v. Portsmouth Cotton Oil Refining Corp. · Stephen Putney Shoe Co. v. Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad
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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[t]he rule is that when a deed is executed and accepted in performance of a prior preliminary contract, the deed, if unambiguous in its terms, and unaffected by fraud or mistake, must be looked to alone as the final agreement of the parties.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * # Doubtless many cases may arise in which distinct and unperformed stipulations contained in a contract for sale will not be merged in or discharged by deed where that instrument is silent upon the subject of such stipulations. In such cases there is no conflict between the contract and the deed. But the deed must be regarded as the sole and final expression of the agreement between the parties as to every subject which it undertakes to deal with. All inconsistencies between the prior contract and the deed must be determined by the latter alone, and previous negotiations or agreements, verbal or written, cannot be set up for the purpose of contradicting it.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“contained covenants which by statute in Virginia . . . meant that the grantee `might at any and all times thereafter, peaceably and quietly enter upon and have, hold, and enjoy the land conveyed by the deed,'”
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.