Penick v. Ratcliffe’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 36 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 43 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““In a note to 16 A. L. R. 743, is this statement of the rule: “ ‘As to the degree of relevancy or pertinency necessary to bring the alleged defamatory matter within the privilege, the courts favor a liberal rule. Thus, the matter to which the privilege does not extend must be so palpably wanting in relation to the subject matter of the controversy that no reasonable man can doubt its irrelevancy and impropriety.’ “In the light of the foregoing statements of the law, were the offending charges material, relevant or pertinent to the relief that might have been legitimately sought under the petition into which they were incorporated? We think they were. They were pertinent as a primary proposition and our judgment here is fortified by the fact that they must be so construed whenever the matter is in doubt. Public policy demands that within all reasonable limits a litigant should have the right to state his case as he sees fit.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Massey v. Jones