Johnson v. Risk’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 federal appellate · 9 district · 10 state decisions

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 125 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The rules which govern the action of this court in cases of this sort are well settled. "Where it appears by the record that the judgment of the state court might have been based either upon a law which would raise, a questiomof repugnancy to the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States, or upon some other independent ground, and it appears that the court did, in fact, base its judgment on such independent ground and not on the law raising the Federal question, this court will not take jurisdiction of the case, even though it might think the position of’ the state court an unsound one. But where it does not appear on which of the two grounds the judgment was based, then, if the independent ground on which it might have been based .was a good and valid one, sufficient of. itself to sustain the judgment, this court will not assume jurisdiction of the case; but if such independent ground was not a good and valid one, it will be presumed that the state court based its judgment on the law raising the Federal question, and this court- will then take jurisdiction.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Eustis v. Bolles

2. “where, in an action pending in a state court, two grounds of defence are interposed, each broad enough to defeat a recovery, and only one of them involves a Federal question, and judgment passes for the defendant, the record- must show, in order to justify a writ of error from this court, that the judgment was rested upon the disposition of the Federal question ; and if this does not affirmatively appear, the writ of error will be dismissed, unless the defence which does not involve a Federal question is so palpably unfounded that it cannot be presumed to have been entertained by the state court.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Eustis v. Bolles

3. ““By that agreement Bisk contracted to pay all the debts and liabilities of every kind of the firms, to assume the liabilities, and to save Johnson harmless. This was broken by a failure to pay the parties to whom the firms were liable, and it was not necessary to a breach that Johnson should show that he had first paid these parties. It was not an agreement merely to indemnify Johnson from damage, but to assume the indebtedness and discharge him from liability.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Cudaback v. Hay