Ward v. Cochran’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

62 federal appellate · 2 district · 16 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 103 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““A possession not actual, but constructive; not exclusive, but in participation with the owner or others falls very far short of that kind of adverse possession which deprives the true owner of his title.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Tyee Consol. Min. Co. v. Langstedt · Hardin v. Wanslee

2. ““ If the jury find from the evidence that William Douglas, the ancestor of the defondants, bought at a tax sale held by the late corporation of Washington, so called, the property in controversy in this case and paid the price bid by him at such sale and received from the corporation of Washington a deed to said property, which was by him duly filed for record and recorded in the land records of the District of Columbia more than twenty years prior to the commencement of this suit; that thereupon the said property was assessed to the said William Douglas on the tax books of the city of Washington and the taxes thereon from that time until the beginning of this suit paid by the said William Douglas or his successors in title, the defendants in this case; that at a period of time more than twenty years before the commencement of this suit the said property was rented on behalf of the defendants to a person who took the same and held possession thereof as tenant of the defendants for the purposes of a stone yard, paying rent therefor from the date of making such arrangement with the defendants, and that, although the said property was not inclosed by a fence, yet the person so renting the same, either upon the whole or a part thereof, during his occupancy, deposited stone used by him in his business, and that- such use and possession of the said property was continued by the occupant thereof actually, exclusively, continuously, openly, notoriously, adversely and uninterruptedly ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Holtzman v. Douglas

3. “In Jackson v. Berner, 48 Illinois 203, it was held that an adverse possession sufficient to defeat the legal title, where there is no paper title, must be hostile in its inception, and is not to be made out by inference, but by clear and positive proof; and further, that the possession must be such as to show clearly that the party claims the land as his own, openly and exclusively.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Jenkins v. Maxwell Land Grant Co.