Northern Pac Co v. Freeman’s Empirical Analysis
174 U.S. 379 · 1899
Citation profile
130 federal appellate · 5 district · 43 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 200 later decisions (12 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 1968 · most notably Herron v. Southern Pacific Co. (1931), Miller v. Union Pacific R. (1933)
130 federal appellate · 5 district · 43 state decisions — followed in 16 states
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.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Railroad Company v. Houston · Schofield v. Chicago M St P Ry Co
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 200 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Judging- from the common experience of men, there can be but one plausible solution of the problem how the collision occurred. He did not look, or, if he looked, he did not heed the warning,' and took the chance of crossing the track before the train could reach him. In either case he was' clearly guilty of contributory negligence.””
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““If, In this ease, we were to discard the evidence of the three witnesses entirely. there would still remain the fuels that the deceased approached a railway crossing well known to him; that the train was in full view; that, if be had used bis senses, be could not have failed to see it; and that, notwithstanding this, the accident occurred. Judging from the common experience of men. títere can be but one plausible solution of the problem bow the collision occurred. He did not look; or, if he looked, he did not heed the warning, and took the chance ol' crossing the track before the train could reach him. In either case he was clearly guilty of contributory negligence. “The cases in this court relied upon by the plaintiffs are all readily distinguishable, either by reason of the proximity of obstructions interfering with the view of approaching trains, confusion caused by trains approaching simultaneously from opposite directions, or other peculiar circumstances tending to- mislead the injured party as to the existence of danger in crossing the track. “Upon the whole, we are of the opinion that the testimony tending to show contributory negligence on the part of tlie deceased was so conclusive that nothing remained for the jury, and that the defendant was entitled to an instruction to return a verdict in its favor. The disposition wo have made of this question renders it unnecessary to express an opinion upon the instruction as to damages.” *”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““There was testimony from several witnesses in the neighborhood tending to show that no whistle was blown by the engineer as the train approached the crossing. There was also the testimony of the conductor, engineer, and fireman that the whistle was blown. As the majority of plaintiffs’ witnesses were so located that they would probably have heard the whistle if it had been blown, there was a conflict of testimony with respect to defendant’s negligence, which was properly left to the jury.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.