Bardon v. Northern Pac R Co’s Empirical Analysis
145 U.S. 535 · 1892
Citation profile
51 federal appellate · 40 district · 40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 204 later decisions (23 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2015 · most notably State of Minnesota v. Ethan Allen Hitchcock (1902), Light v. United States (1911)
51 federal appellate · 40 district · 40 state decisions — followed in 15 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 De La Fayette Wilcox v. John Jackson · Leavenworth Lawrence and Galveston Railroad Company v. United States · Hastings Co v. Whitney · Witherspoon v. Duncan · Kansas Pacific Railway Co. v. Dunmeyer
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 204 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(a)ll land, to which any claims or rights of others have attached.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““And this writer, after a much larger experience in the consideration of public land grants since that time, now readily conceded that the rule of construction adopted, that, in the absence of any express provision indicating otherwise, a grant of public lands only applies to lands which are at the time free from existing claims, is better and safer, both for the government and to private parties, than the rule which would pass property' subject to the liens and claims of others. The latter construction would open a wide field of litigation between the grantees and third parties.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * Every alternate section designated by odd numbers, within certain defined limits, is granted; but only the public lands owned absolutely by the United States are subject to survey and division into sections, and to them alone this grant is applicable. It embraces such as could be sold and enjoyed, and not those which the Indians, pursuant to treaty stipulations, were left free to occupy.” “ * * * We go further, and say, that whenever a tract of land shall have been once legally appropriated to any purpose, from that moment the land thus appropriated becomes severed from the mass of public lands; and that no subsequent law, proclamation, or sale would be construed to embrace or operate upon it, although no reservation were made of it. It may be urged that it was not necessary in deciding that case to pass upon the question; but, however this may be, the principle asserted is sound and reasonable, and we accept it as a rule of construction.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.