Hamilton v. Baker’s Empirical Analysis
1948
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 26 later decisions — most recently May 1978 · most notably Cockrell v. Texas Gulf Sulphur Company (1957), Valentine Oil Co. v. Powers (1953)
3 federal appellate · 23 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 Miller v. Hodges
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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““But it does not become necessary in this case to resort to equitable considerations and reasoning to conclude with certainty that the Baker lease did not terminate. This for the reason that the rentals in dispute were paid by the timely delivery and acceptance of a check which was in fact good, and accordingly the lease was effectively continued in force. Looking to the substance rather than the form of the transactions between the parties, the check was in fact a good one at all times from the opening of the drawee bank the morning after its delivery until it was mailed back to Mays some eight months later. Quite accidentally the check did reach the drawee bank at a time when Mays’ balance was too low to cover it and the notation of the arrangement between Mays and the bank was not on Mays’ ledger sheet. To add to these mishaps, the officer who agreed with Mays to pay the check was temporarily absent. These fortuitous events did not at all render the check a worthless one. To the contrary, it was in fact good. Merely by the veriest of mistakes was it returned unpaid. If Mays had had ample funds on deposit to cover the check and by error some bank employee had returned it unpaid, giving as a reason that the drawer had insufficient funds to cover it, none would contend that the check was not in fact good. Such a mistake as that would not result in a termination of the lease. Now, Mays had a valid commitment from the bank to pay the check upon presentation, and so had sufficie”
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.