Baltimore Co v. Fifth Baptist Church of Washington’s Empirical Analysis
137 U.S. 568 · 1891
Citation profile
24 federal appellate · 9 district · 22 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 89 later decisions (12 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 1981 · most notably Wiborg v. United States (1896), Fallbrook Irrigation District v. Bradley (1896)
24 federal appellate · 9 district · 22 state decisions — followed in 14 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from District of Columbia District Court)
Relationships
Relies on Baltimore v. Fifth Baptist Church · Vicksburg v. Putnam · The President Directors and Company of the Bank of the United States v. Dandridge · John Conard v. The Atlantic Insurance Company New York · United States v. Philadelphia & Reading Railroad
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 89 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““If the facts are established which the evidence tended to prove, and from the verdict of the jury we must so infer, there can be no doubt of the right of the plaintiff to recover. The engine-house and repair-shop of the railroad company, as they were used, rendered it impossible for the plaintiff to occupy its building with any comfort as a place of public worship. The hammering in the shop, the rumbling of the engines passing in and out of the engine-house, the blowing off of steam, the ringing of bells, the sounding of whistles, and the smoke from the chimneys, with its cinders, dust, and offensive odors, created a constant disturbance of the religious exercises of the church. The noise was often so great that the voice of the pastor while preaching could not be heard. The chimneys of the engine-house being lower than the windows of the church, smoke and cinders sometimes entered the latter in such quantities as to cover the seats of the church with soot and soil the garments of the worshipers. Disagreeable odors, added to the noise, smoke, and cinders, rendered the place not only uncomfortable, but almost unendurable as a place of worship. As a consequence, the congregation de creased in numbers, and the Sunday-school was less numerously attended than previously. “Plainly the engine-house and repair-shop, as they were used by the railroad company, were a nuisance in every sense of the term. They interfered with the enjoyment of property which was acquired by the plaintiff”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““that the plaintiff had in good faith legally organized as a corporation and had long acted as such and was at least a corporation de facto, which is all that is necessary to enable It to maintain an action against any one, other than the state, who has contracted with the corporation or who has done it a wrong.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Kardo Co. v. Adams
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.