Washington Co v. Osborn’s Empirical Analysis
160 U.S. 103 · 1895
Citation profile
12 federal appellate · 13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 44 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 1981 · most notably Northern Pacific Railway Company v. Jacob Slaght (1907), Great Northern Ry Co v. Steinke (1923)
12 federal appellate · 13 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 Frisbie v. Whitney · Hutchings v. Low · Buxton v. Traver · Washington & Idaho Railroad v. Cœur D'Alene Railway & Navigation Co.
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 44 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It must therefore be conceded that Osborn did not, by maintaining possession for several years and putting valuable improvements thereon, preclude the government from dealing with the lands as its own, and from conferring them on another party by a subsequent grant. On the other hand, it would not be easy to suppose that Congress would, in authorizing railroad companies to traverse the public lauds, intend thereby to give them a right to run the lines of their roads at pleasure, regardless of the rights of settlers.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It would not be easy to suppose that congress would, in authorizing railroad companies to traverse the public lands, intend thereby to give them a right to run the lines of their roads at pleasure, regardless of the rights of settlers.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““A settlement upon the public lands in advance of the public surveys is allowed to parties who in good faith intend, when the surveys are made and returned to the local land office, to apply for their purchase.””
1 later decision 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.