Patterson v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
15 U.S. 221 · 1817
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 35 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 66 later decisions (6 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 1956 · most notably Hodges v. Easton (1882), American Construction Co v. Jacksonville T K W Ry Co Same (1893)
6 federal appellate · 35 state decisions — followed in 15 states
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.
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 66 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““A verdict is bad if it varies from the issue in a substantial manner, or if it finds only a part of that which is in issue. Although the court in which the cause is tried may give form to a general finding, so as to make it harmonize with the issue, yet, if it appears to that court, or to the appellate court, that the finding is different from the issue, or is confined to a part only of the matter in issue, no judgment can be rendered upon the verdict.””
3 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.