Spalding v. Mason’s Empirical Analysis
161 U.S. 375 · 1896
Citation profile
58 federal appellate · 16 district · 15 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 117 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2011 · most notably Miller v. Robertson (1924), Prager v. New Jersey Fidelity & Plate Glass Insurance Co. of Newark (1927)
58 federal appellate · 16 district · 15 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 Sturm v. Boker · Grant v. Phoenix Mut Life Ins Co · Hitz v. Jenks · Lewis Curtis v. John Innerarity
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 117 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is a dictate of natural justice, and the law of every civilized country, that a man is bound in equity, not only to perform his engagements, but also to repair all the damages that accrue naturally from their breach .... Every one who contracts to pay money on a certain day knows that, if he fails to fulfil his contract, he must pay the established rate of interest as damages for his nonperformance. Hence it may correctly be said that such is the implied contract of the parties.”
8 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.