Morrison v. . Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1904
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 2 district · 71 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 90 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2019 · most notably Peck v. Tribune Co. (1909), 173 W. Va. 699 - Crump v. Beckley Newspapers, Inc. (1984)
5 federal appellate · 2 district · 71 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedMorrison v. Smith
Relationships
Relies on Sanderson v. . Caldwell · Morey v. Morning Journal Ass'n · Root v. King & Verplanck
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 90 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““If the language is unambiguous, whether it is actionable becomes a question of law; but if ambiguous and capable of an innocent, as well as of a disgraceful meaning, the question becomes one for the jury to settle. When the defamatory meaning is not apparent, innuendo is necessary. If the words are incapable of the meaning ascribed to them by the innuendo, and are, prima facie, not actionable, the complaint should be dismissed. If they are capable of such a meaning, however improbable it may appear, the jury should say whether they may be so understood. Odgers’ Libel and Slander, 107; Sanderson v. Caldwell, 45 N. Y. 398 , 6 Am. Rep. 105 .””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.