Fitterer v. Crawford’s Empirical Analysis
1900
Citation profile
52 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 52 later decisions — most recently January 1982 · most notably Congregational Sunday School & Publishing Society v. Board of Review (1919), Evangelical Lutheran Synod v. Hoehn (1946)
52 state decisions — followed in 14 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.
Relationships
Relies on City of Indianapolis v. Grand Master · City of Bangor v. Rising Virtue Lodge, No. 10 · County of Hennepin v. Brotherhood of the Church of Gethsemane · Young Men's Protestant Temperance & Benevolent Society v. City of Fall River · M. E. Church, South v. Hinton
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 52 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“No corporation or institution is a purely public charity, which is not under the control * * * of the public authorities; or, at least, subject to public visitation; or, is founded and endowed so as to give the general public, under reasonable restrictions, an absolute right to receive its benefits, and, in case of failure of its managers to carry out the founder's will, to compel compliance therewith by an application to the courts. In case of a dissolution of such a charity, its property must rest in the public authorities for charitable uses.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““There is a very material difference between the ‘use of a building exclusively for purely charitable purposes’ and renting it out, and then applying the proceeds arising therefrom to such purposes. To rent out a building is not to use it, within the meaning of the statute, but, in order to use it, it must be occupied or made use of.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“In the construction of laws exempting property from taxation it is a cardinal principle that they must be strictly construed. As a rule all property is liable to taxation, exemption the exception, and it devolves upon the person claiming that any specific property is exempt to show it beyond a reasonable doubt.”
1 later decision 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.