Smith v. Higgins’s Empirical Analysis
1939
Citation profile
20 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently July 1972
20 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 Robertson v. Sichel · Michel v. Smith · Dowler v. . Johnson · Hilton v. Oliver · State v. Kolb
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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““In many decisions this court has discussed the nature of the county and has often called attention to distinctions between counties and cities as legal entities. The county is not a corporation in any ordinary sense. It has at times been designated as an ‘involuntary quasi corporation.’ It is an arm and agent of the state set up to perform certain governmental and political functions. As such it partakes of the immunity which inheres in state sovereignty.” (citing.) “It is equally well established that counties are not liable for damages in actions for tort unless such liability is clearly imposed by statute.” (citing.) (p. 479.)”
1 later decision 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.