Davison v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “PLAINTIFF’S INSTRUCTION 5, “There was at the time of the accident in controversy a statute of the State of Indiana in full force and effect providing that ‘Every motor vehicle other than a motorcycle or motor-driven cycle when operated upon a highway shall be equipped with brakes adequate to control the movement of and to stop and hold such vehicle, including two separate means of applying the brakes, each of which means shall be effective to apply the brakes to at least two wheels. If these two separate means of applying the brakes are connected in any way they shall be so constructed that failure of any one part of the mechanism shall not leave the motor vehicle without brakes on it least two wheels.’ If you find from the evidence that at the time of the accident in controversy the defendant was operating upon a public highway an automobile that was not equipped with brakes adequate to control its movement and to stop and hold it, including two separate means of applying such brakes, he was guilty of negligence as a matter of law and if as the proximate result thereof, the plaintiff was injured while in the exercise of reasonable care himself, he is entitled to recover in this action such damages as you may find he has thereby sustained, but not to exceed the amount prayed for in the plaintiff’s complaint.” PLAINTIFF’S INSTRUCTION 6, “There was also at the time of the accident in controversy, a statute of the State of Indiana in full force and effect providing that ‘All bra”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Davison v. Williams

2. ““A person who is driving an automobile on the public highways is not bound to anticipate or foresee any mechanical failure on the part of his automobile unless he actually knew of the defective condition or could have discovered the same in the exercise of reasonable care. Therefore, if you find that the sole proximate cause of the collision in this case was caused by a failure of the brakes on the automobile of the defendant, and if you further find that the defendant did not know that the brakes on his automobile were defective or that he could not have discovered the defective condition by a reasonably careful inspection, your verdict must be for the defendant.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Davison v. Williams

3. “... the Appellant was required, under our case law, if he desired a fuller statement of the law to be made, to have tendered such instructions as would have correctly expressed a more complete statement of the law.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Mireles v. State