175 W. Va. 792 - Shell v. Bechtold’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
81 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 81 later decisions — most recently March 2019 · most notably 202 W. Va. 228 - Ewing v. Board of Education (1998), 188 W. Va. 534 - State v. White (1992)
81 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 Calder et Wife, v. Bull et Wife. · Galvan v. Press · Marcello v. Bonds · 159 W. Va. 108 - Smith v. State Workmen's Compensation Commissioner · 172 W. Va. 312 - State Ex Rel. Simpkins v. Harvey
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 81 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A statute should be so read and applied as to make it accord with the spirit, purposes and objects of the general system of law of which it is intended to form a part; it being presumed that the legislators who drafted and passed it were familiar with all existing law, applicable to the subject matter, whether constitutional, statutory or common, and intended the statute to harmonize completely with the same and aid in the effectuation of the general purpose and design thereof, if its terms are consistent therewith.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he purpose of the administrative sanction of license revocation is the removal of persons who drive under the influence of alcohol and other intoxicants from our highways... The revocation provisions are not penal in nature ... and should be read in accord with the general intent of our traffic laws to protect the innocent public.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he proper forum for attacking the constitutional validity of a prior traffic offense conviction when that offense is the foundation for adverse administrative action by the commissioner of motor vehicles is ... the state courts of the state in which the conviction was initially rendered if it is an out-of-state conviction.”
2 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.