The Lyndhurst’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate ·

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

1. ““The boat [the Rafferty] had been lying stern out, light, outside of two other boats fastened on the upper side of Thirteenth Street [Pier] and was taken in tow there, about 7 o’clock in the morning by the tug, to be towed to Edgewater, N. J., for a load of coal, on a hawser, furnished by the tug and leading from her stem. [The tug had a barge on each side and therefore backed into the slip between 13th and 14th streets to pick up the canal boat.] The loop of the hawser was put by the master of the boat over her stern cleat, under directions from the tug, but it shortly afterwards slipped off, letting the boat go adrift and come in contact with the float, causing the damage complained of. The tide was ebb and the wind of some force" from the northwest. The tug’s liability turns principally upon the question whether she was negligent in making the boat fast. The libelant contends that the hawser was frozen and stiff and that it slipped off for that reason. Also that the tug was in fault in several other particulars, among them, that ■ the tug failed to see that the tow was properly fastened and permitted her to come in violent collision with a lighter. The claimant contends that the accident was wholly produced by the negligence of the master of the boat in that he did not properly fasten the hawser to his cleat.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. The Lyndhurst