Hicks v. Krigbaum’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

30 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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ ‘Such construction ought to be put upon a statute as may best answer the intention which the makers had in view. . . . The intention ... is sometimes to be collected from the cause or necessity of making a statute; at other times, from other circumstances. "Whenever this can be discovered, it ought to be followed with reason and discretion in the construction of the statute, although such construction seems contrary to the letter of the statute. . . . A thing which is within the intention of the makers of a statute is as much within the statute as if it were within the letter. ... A thing which is within the letter of a statute is not within the statute, unless it be within the intention of the makers. ’ [Citing cases.] ‘A rigid and literal reading would in many eases defeat the very object of the statute. . . . Every statute ought to be expounded, not according to the letter, but according to the meaning. . . . And the intention is to govern, although such construction may not in all respects agree with the letter of the statute. The reason and object of a statute are a clue to its meaning, and the spirit of the law and the intentions of its makers are diligently to be sought after, and the letter must bend to these.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Mahoney v. County of Maricopa