O'Connell v. Mason’s Empirical Analysis
132 F. 245 · 1904
Citation profile
19 federal appellate · 2 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 33 later decisions — most recently February 2017 · most notably Evans v. Croom (1981), Kenney v. Fox (1956)
19 federal appellate · 2 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 Webb v. Fisher · O'Connell v. Mason
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 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is quite clear that Congress, while intending to extend to poor and meritorious suitors the privilege of having their wrongs redressed without the ordinary burdens of litigation, at the same time intended to safeguard members of the public against an abuse of the privilege by evil-minded persons who might avail themselves of the shield of immunity from costs for the purpose of harassing those with whom they were not in accord, by subjecting them to vexatious and frivolous legal proceedings.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““We liave no doubt of 1lie inherent and necessary liower of courts of general jurisdiction to protect members of the public from vexatious suits through an exercise of the right to dismiss frivolous proceedings, which, upon the face of the pleadings, present no cause of action recognized by the law. Unquestionably the power to dismiss exists quite independent of express statutory authority;, and may be exercised in a proper case by the court of its own motion.'’”
2 later decisions 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.