Southern Ry. Co. v. Simpson’s Empirical Analysis
131 F. 705 · 1904
Citation profile
12 federal appellate · 1 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently February 1958
12 federal appellate · 1 district ·
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 Cohens v. Virginia · Union Pac Ry Co v. Wyler · Byrne v. Kansas City, Ft. S. & M. R. · Patton v. Railway Co. · Western & A. R. v. Roberson
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.
““This statute in terms makes no exceptions, but it seems to us unreasonable and utterly impracticable to apply it strictly to the running of engines.and cars about the depots or yards of railroads, and in relation to the hands or employés of the road, who are moving across the track in discharge of their several duties. To require that whenever any one of these employés shall be upon the track, when the engine is running at the rate of three or four miles an hour, that the whistle shall be sounded, the brakes put down, and every effort used to stop, seems to us not only to be utterly unnecessary, but also that it would render it almost impracticable to make the necessary movements of the engines and cars about the yard. This record discloses that engines passed over these tracks a great number.of times daily, and this we all know from common observation. The duties of the employés require them to cross or walk upon the track often, and sometimes close to a moving engine. They become familiar with this, and possibly to some extent indifferent to their danger. They seem conscious of their ability to cross the track close to a moving engine without danger. They are familiar with the running of the trains, and with the rules and regulations. In this case it appears that the deceased had been for some time in the employ of the company, and engaged in the very duty he was that day discharging. It was the daily custom for the engine and tender to back out in the same manner it did t”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““The opinion as a construction of the statute is authoritative to the extent • of the precise question decided, and no farther.””
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.