Matson v. Dane County’s Empirical Analysis
1920
Citation profile
18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently March 1991
18 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 Zinc Carbonate Co. v. First National Bank of Shullsburg · Hughes v. City of Fond du Lac · Harper v. City of Milwaukee · Folk v. City of Milwaukee · Bunker v. City of Hudson
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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The claim of the county rests on the proposition that what the county’s officers and agents may do in discharge of its duty in maintaining a public highway are acts in discharge of its governmental duty and the law imposes no legal liability for the injuries or damages caused thereby, regardless of the manner in which such duty is performed, unless the legislature has created a liability in such cases. The proposition asserted as controlling in this case is not sustained by the adjudications in this court. In the case of Folk v. Milwaukee, 108 Wis. 359 , 84 N. W. 420 , this court, in speaking of the doctrine of nonliability of a city in its discharge of a governmental function, states: “ ‘We do not lose sight of the fact that there is another principle frequently approved by this court, namely, that a municipal corporation may not construct or maintain a nuisance in the street or upon its property to the damage of another, or negligently turn water or sewage upon the lands of another, without liability.’ Gilluly v. Madison, 63 Wis. 518 , 24 N. W. 137 ; Hughes v. Fond du Lac, 73 Wis. 380 , 41 N. W. 407 ; Schroeder v. Baraboo, 93 Wis. 95 , 67 N. W. 27 . “These cases all go upon the principle that the city cannot, in the management of its corporate property, create a nuisance injurious to the property or the rights of others.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage““ ‘In grading the street the city was doing one of the things which, as a municipal corporation, it was authorized to do. That work was done in an improper or negligent manner, so as to invade the rights of the plaintiffs, not as a member of the public, but as adjoining proprietors. Toward them the city’s act was not governmental, but proprietary. For proximate damages thus caused liability results according to principle, and without conflict of authority.’ Citing cases of this court on page 54.””
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.