Belfils v. Flint’s Empirical Analysis
1887
Citation profile
7 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently June 1965
7 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 Marooney v. McKay
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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The return on the summons does not show that a copy of the complaint certified by the justice of the peace before whom the cause was pending, or certified to by the plaintiff, his agent or attorney, was served on the defendant. This is a statutory- requirement which must be observed before jurisdiction can be assumed or conferred. Whether it has been complied with or not, we must look to the return of the officer upon whom is imposed this duty. As the return of that officer does not show that a copy of the complaint, certified as required, was served, the service is insufficient to warrant a judgment by default against the defendant. ’ ’”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Spencer v. Small
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.