Chambers v. Emery’s Empirical Analysis
1896
Citation profile
10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently March 2016
10 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 Howland v. Blake · Purcell v. Miner · United States v. Maxwell Land-Grant Co · Stockbridge Iron Co. v. Hudson Iron Co. · Lehman v. Lewis
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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““In such event the proof must be strong, clear, and convincing, such' as to leave no doubt of the existence of the trust. Such a case is similar to one where it is attempted to convert a deed absolute into a mortgage, or where the reformation of a written instrument is sought on the ground of accident, mistake, or fraud. In all such cases the court will scrutinize parol evidence with great caution, and the plaintiff must fail unless it is clear, definite, unequivocal, and conclusive. Public policy, and the safety and security of titles to real estate, demand this rule, because such evidence is offered to overcome the strong presumption, arising from the terms and conditions of an instrument in writing, which is always the best evidence of title. If it were once established that the effect of the terms of a written instrument could be avoided by a bare preponderance of parol evidence, the gates to perjury would soon be wide open, and no person could longer rest in the security of his title to property, however solemn might be the instrument on which it was founded.””
2 later decisions 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.