Preston v. Prather’s Empirical Analysis
137 U.S. 604 · 1891
Citation profile
44 federal appellate · 4 district · 42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 102 later decisions (7 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 1997 · most notably Briggs v. Spaulding (1891), Massaletti v. Fitzroy (1917)
44 federal appellate · 4 district · 42 state decisions — followed in 19 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.
Relationships
Relies on Railroad Company v. Lockwood · Reynes v. Dumont · Milwaukee and St Paul Railway Company v. Apms et al. · National Bank v. Graham · The Steamboat New World v. King
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 102 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The doctrine of exemption from liability in such cases [that is, those involving the liability of gratuitous bailees] was at one time carried so far as to shield the bailees from the fraudulent acts of their own employees and officers, though their employment embraced a supervision of the property, such acts not being deemed within the scope of their employment.” (Preston v. Prather, 137 U. S. 604, 609 .)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““'No one taking upon himself a duty for another without consideration is hound, either in law or morals, to do more than a man of that character would do generally for himself under like conditions.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Bailey v. Babcock
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.