165 W. Va. 156 - Gray v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently November 2005
19 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 Link v. Wabash Railroad · Forgett v. United States · Long v. District Court of Iowa ex rel. Lee County · Messenger v. United States · Arrowood v. McMinn County
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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Involuntary dismissal for failure to prosecute should only occur when there is lack of diligence by a plaintiff and demonstrable prejudice to defendant. (citations omitted).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“[Cjourts have inherent common law power, in addition to any statutory authority to dismiss an action for failure to prosecute. [citations omitted] ... Involuntary dismissal for failure to prosecute should only occur when there is lack of diligence by a plaintiff and demonstrable prejudice to defendant, [citations omitted] Whether plaintiff was duly diligent must be determined on an ad hoc basis, after careful examination of factors contributing to delay. If plaintiff did nothing to locate defendant, and could have, she should be barred from her prosecution.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[e]very personal action for which no limitation is otherwise prescribed shall be brought ... within two years next after the right to bring the same shall have accrued if it be for damages for personal injuries....”
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.