Looney v. Belcher’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 state decisions

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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The parties affected by the contract which we have considered could have inserted therein plain words of limitation and condition, but they did not choose to do so. We cannot, by construction and interpretation, import these words and effect a significance which they did not elect to consummate. In other words, the courts cannot make contracts for persons.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Bank of Southside Virginia v. Candelario

2. “It is a presumption of law that the parties to a contract bind not only themselves but their personal representatives. Executors, therefore, are held to be liable on all contracts of the testator which are broken in his lifetime, and, with the exception of contracts in which personal skill or taste is required, on all contracts broken after his death.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Firebaugh v. Whitehead

3. “`[a]ny act done at the defendant's request, and for his convenience, or at the inconvenience of the plaintiff.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Smith v. Mountjoy