Kempner v. Sanders’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““But appellant contends that the clause ‘and otherwise improving’ makes the antecedent language uncertain and makes it doubtful as to the kind of improvement contemplated. But, taking the sentence as a whole, we are convinced that it is not susceptible of such interpretation. The meaning and effect of the conjunction ‘and’ was to indicate that the board of improvement could add to and join with the repaving of Main Street such other and further work as was necessary and incident thereto and included in the repaving’ of Main Street with an asphaltic surface. In other words, the main purpose of the petition was the repaving of Main Street. The words ‘and otherwise improving’ were manifestly added in order to give the hoard of improvement the power to do whatever was necessary to effectuate the main purpose. Certainly these words cannot he interpreted to clothe the hoard ‘with a roving commission controlled only hy their own discretion to make any kind of improvement they desired.’ The only improvement.they could make, as we view the petition, was the repaving of Main Street with an asphaltic surface and the doing of such other work in connection therewith as was incident thereto and essential to making the repavement of Main street a successful and complete improvement, such as was contemplated hy the petition.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Monroe v. Culpepper