Morse v. Westport’s Empirical Analysis
1896
Citation profile
2 district · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently February 1920
2 district · 6 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 Soon Hing v. Crowley · Stuart v. . Palmer · Painter v. Painter · City of St. Louis v. Russell · City of St. Louis v. Weber
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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The authority was, under its original charter, clearly conferred upon the council of the city of Westport to require the improvement of its streets, to determine which of them should be improved, the character of the. improvement to be made, whether the adjacent property would be benefited thereby, and the amount of such benefits, and, for the purpose of paying the cost, to charge against such property the amount of such benefits. Its determination of these questions, in the exercise of an honest judgment and discretion, cannot be interfered with by the courts, though it appear from the evidence that the improvements were not, in fact, demanded by the public, and the benefits were not a fair equivalent for the charges exacted. It is true in some instances great injustice may be done to property owners, yet the remedy must be sought from the Legislature, by securing limitations on the powers of the council; the courts are given no power to interfere with the judgment or discretion of the legislative department of the state when exercised within its proper sphere. It is true that the whole theory of local assessments is that the improvement for which they are levied affords remuneration to the property owner in the way of benefits, and to go beyond the limit' of compensation in making assessments would be to exceed the power of taxation; yet the honest legislative action of the council raises a conclusive presumption that the benefits received from the improvements will equal ”
1 later decision 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.