139 W. Va. 607 - Roush v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis
1954
Citation profile
52 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 52 later decisions — most recently January 2011 · most notably 158 W. Va. 741 - Long v. City of Weirton (1975), Peters v. Forster (2004)
52 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 138 W. Va. 639 - Matthews v. Cumberland & Allegheny Gas Co. · 122 W. Va. 522 - Fielder v. Service Cab Co. · 33 Cal. 2d 228 - Hale v. Depaoli · 129 W. Va. 267 - Divita v. Atlantic Trucking Co. · 138 W. Va. 218 - Pope v. Edward M. Rude Carrier Corp.
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 52 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Though this Court, in dealing with the question whether an alleged act of negligence is the sole proximate cause of the alleged wrongful death or injury complained of, has held that the proximate cause of an injury is the last negligent act contributing thereto without which such injury would not have occurred, Schwartz v. Shull, 45 W. Va. 405 , 31 S.E. 914 ; Divita v. Atlantic Trucking Co., 129 W. Va. 267 , 40 S.E.2d 324 , it is settled in this jurisdiction that where the alleged injury or wrongful death results from the concurrent negligence of two or more persons, though acting independently of each other, which combined resulted in the injury to or death of a third person, recovery may be had against either or all. Starcher v. South Penn Oil Co., 81 W. Va. 587 , 95 S.E. 28 ; Day v. Louisville Coal & Coke Co., 60 W. Va. 27 , 53 S.E. 776 . And, more specifically, ‘Where separate and distinct negligent acts of two or more persons continue unbroken to the instant of an injury, contributing directly and immediately thereto and constituting the efficient cause thereof, such acts constitute the sole proximate cause of the injury.’ Pt. 1 syl., Brewer v. Appalachian Constructors, Inc., 135 W. Va. 739 , 65 S.E.2d 87 . Accordant: American Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Ohio Valley Sand Co., 131 W. Va. 736 , 50 S.E.2d 884 ; Tawney v. Kirkhart, 130 W. Va. 550 , 44 S.E.2d 634 ; Gilkerson v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., 129 W.Va. 649 , 41 S.E.2d 188 ; Sigmon v. Mundy, 125 W. Va. 591 ”
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.