United States v. Grimley’s Empirical Analysis
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 20 district · 19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 140 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2022 · most notably Reid v. Covert (1957), Gibson v. United States (1946)
6 federal appellate · 20 district · 19 state decisions — followed in 15 states
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.
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 140 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The government, as contracting party, offers contract and service. Grimley accepts such contract, declaring that he possesses all the qualifications prescribed in the government’s offer. The contract is duly signed. Grimley has made an untrue statement in regard to his qualifications. The government makes no objection because of the untruth. The qualification is one for the benefit of the government, one of the contracting parties. Who can take advantage of Grimley’s lack of qualification? Obviously only the party for whose benefit it was inserted. Such is the ordinary law of contracts.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“It must be noted here that in the present contract is involved no matter of duress, imposition, ignorance, or intoxication. Grimley was sober, and of his own volition went to the recruiting office and enlisted. There was no compulsion, no solicitation, no misrepresentation. A man of mature years, he entered freely into the contract. (Emphasis supplied.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“So, unless there be in the nature of things some inherent vice in the existence of the relation, or natural wrong in the manner in which it was established, public policy requires that it should not be disturbed.”
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.