Smith v. Philadelphia Transp. Co.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

27 federal appellate · 4 district · 3 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 46 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Juries are not so likely to get excited or inflamed by lawyers’ talk as lawyers think they are.” ,”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 135 F. Supp. 4 - Webster Motor Car Co. v. Packard Motor Car Co. · Ohio-Sealy Mattress Manufacturing Co. v. Sealy, Inc.

2. “"The last point has to do with the verdict in favor of the parents for the death of the child. Two claims are involved. The first is a survival action by the administrator of the child's estate. In that claim the basis of recovery in Pennsylvania is the economic value of the life of the child as measured by the probable net earnings during his life expectancy after age 21, reduced to present value. The second is a wrongful death claim, in which recovery is limited to financial loss sustained by the parents. "In answer to the specific interrogatories, the jury awarded damages of $500 to the administrator in what was necessarily the claim based on the survival statute, and $10,000 in the claim based on the wrongful death statute. The error is obvious, for the amount claimed for wrongful death was only $275 for medical and funeral expenses plus $5000 for estimated loss of earnings of the child to age 21. The financial position of the Fenimores and the testimony showing that the boy would have attended college indicate clearly that the claim for loss of earnings during his minority was a weak one. "In this situation, we think that the jury reversed its answers to interrogatories 6 and 7. The mistake is easily remedied by setting the answers opposite the proper questions. This is, of course, a procedural matter in which we are free to follow our own rule, but we note that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has done exactly the same thing in a recent case. The error is harmless and the”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 257 So. 2d 36 - Cory v. Greyhound Lines, Inc.

3. “It is clear . . . that the fundamental test for negligence is the failure to exercise reasonable care, not in the abstract, but under the particular circumstances. As lawsuits are brought and decided, rules for particular situations tend to become crystallized; courts hold that under an enumerated set of circumstances a person's conduct is or is not failure to exercise reasonable care. When the rule is thus crystallized, the standard of conduct has been set and is no longer open to finding by a jury. But it must be borne in mind always that the crystallization of general principle into specific rule is one for the special circumstances for which the rule is declared.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Sturdevant v. Erie Lackawanna Railroad