McDonald v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis
174 U.S. 397 · 1899
Citation profile
70 federal appellate · 24 district · 59 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 191 later decisions (9 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2015 · most notably Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Weintraub (1985), Hart Steel Company v. Railroad Supply Company (1917)
70 federal appellate · 24 district · 59 state decisions — followed in 19 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 Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Hollins v. Brierfield Coal & Iron Co. · Graham v. Railroad Co. · Wabash St Ry Co v. Ham
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 191 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ ‘Insolvency is a most important and material fact, not only with individuals but with corporations, and with the latter as with the former the mere fact of its existence may change radically and materially its rights and obligations.’ ” McDonald v. Williams, 174 U.S. 397, 404 , 19 S.Ct. 743 , 43 L.Ed. 1022 (1899).”
7 later decisions 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.