Meech v. . Patchin’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 20 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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It was enacted by the third section of the laws of 1833, page 402, that mortgages thus filed should cease to be valid as against the creditors of the person making the same, or against subsequent purchasers or mortgagees in good faith, after the expiration of one year from the filing thereof, unless they should be re-filed within thirty days before the expiration of the year, with a statement showing the same to be still on foot. A person about to deal with the possessor and apparent owner of chattels could, by resorting to the proper clerk’s office, ascertain whether he had mortgaged them to another party. Should he find a mortgage on file, he could not determine, without the help of the third section, whether the lien still continued, whatever length of time had elapsed since the filing; but by means of the provision in that section he could be certain that the mortgage had ceased to be a lien if he found it had not been renewed within one year. If his examination was made within the year, he must proceed at his peril, or take other means to ascertain whether the mortgage remained a lien. When the plaintiffs in this case took their mortgage the defendant’s mortgage was on file, and they accordingly had the notice of it which the statute contemplated. The year from the time it was filed had not elapsed, and no default or want of diligence had therefore happened on the part of the defendant. The defendant’s mortgage was in full vigor, and the plaintiffs’ was taken subject to”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Howard v. First National Bank