Ball v. Halsell’s Empirical Analysis
161 U.S. 72 · 1896
Citation profile
17 federal appellate · 23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 92 later decisions (22 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2009 · most notably United States v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. (1949), Calhoun v. Massie (1920)
17 federal appellate · 23 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 Hans v. State of Louisiana · Fletcher v. Peck · In re Ayers · Sinking-Fund Cases v. United States Central Pacific Railroad Company · Hobbs v. McLean
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 92 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The instrument was an unilateral contract, not signed by the attorney, nor containing any agreement on his part, and — so long, at least, as it had ndt been carried into execution — might be revoked by the principal; or might be disregarded by him in making a settlement with the United States; or might be treated by him as absolutely null and void in any contest between him and the attorney. ... By the very terms of the contract, the attorney was to be paid only out of money recovered and received by him from the United States.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Calhoun v. Massie“jurisprudence in all civilized nations that the sovereign cannot be sued in its own courts, or in any other, without its consent and permission.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Moon v. Hines
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.