Robinson v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1939
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 15 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently August 2005
2 federal appellate · 15 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 Goldstein v. Union National Bank · Barson v. . Mulligan · Rogers v. Benton · Watkins v. Minter · Russell v. Ely
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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Whatever may be the source of the rule historically, we think it is justified upon equitable principles by the considerations just stated, and that it should be followed, because of that fact, and be administered with reference to it; that it should be acted upon when the circumstances are such that these reasons are applicable, and only then. It is obvious that such reasons apply to all cases in which the mortgagee has actual possession of the mortgaged property, except where he has acquired it under such circumstances that it would be inequitable to permit him to assert a right under it. The expression, frequently used, that the entry must he lawful, we interpret to mean, not that it must have been effected under a formal right capable of enforcement by legal proceedings, but that it must not be through any unlawful or wrongful act, upon which the mortgagee would be estopped to found a right. The importance given to the matter of the consent or acquiescence of the mortgagor we conceive to be derived, not from the idea of its establishing a contract * * * but from the' fact that it frees the mortgagee from any suspicion of having obtained possession by fraud or force. We conclude that the true rule is that, when the mortgagee is in possession of the mortgaged premises after condition broken, he may not be dispossessed without a payment of the mortgage debt, unless his possession was acquired under such circumstances that he ought not, in equity, to be permitted to retain it”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Tiger v. Sellers
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.