the Knapp Stout Co Company v. John McCaffrey’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

42 federal appellate · 23 district · 59 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 226 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““If * * * ttie cause of action be not one of which a court of admiralty has jurisdiction, or if the suit be in personam against an individual defendant, with an auxiliary attachment against a particular thing, or against the property of the defendant in general, it is essentially a proceeding according to the course of the common law, and within the saving clause of the statute (section 563) of a common-law remedy.””

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Berton v. Tietjen & Lang Dry Dock Co. · Keithley v. North Pac. S. S. Co.

2. ““The real question is whether the proceeding taken is within the exception ‘ of saving to suitors in all cases the right of a common-law remedy, where the common law is competent to give it.’ It was certainly not a common-law action, but a suit in equity. But it will be noticed that the reservation is not of an action at common law, but of a common-law remedy; and a remedy does not necessarily imply an action. A remedy is defined by Bouvier as ‘the means employed to enforce a right, or redress an injury. ’ While, as stated by him, remedies for nonfulfillment of contracts are generally by action, they are by no means universally so. Thus, a landlord has at common law a remedy by distress for his rent •—a right also given, to him for the purpose of exacting compensation for damages resulting from the trespass of cattle. A bailee of property has a remedy for work done upon such property, or for expenses incurred in keeping it, by detention of possession. An innkeeper has a similar remedy upon the goods of his guests to the amount of his charges for their entertainment; and a carrier has a like lien upon the thing carried. There is also a common-law remedy for nuisances by abatement; a right upon the part of the person assaulted to resist the assailant, even to his death; a right of recaption of goods stolen or unlawfully taken, and a public right against disturbers of the peace by compelling them to give sureties for their good behavior. All these remedies are independent of an ”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. North Pacific Steamship Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission · 101 Cal. App. 4th 552 - Donaldson v. National Marine, Inc.

3. ““Sec. 128. The Judiciary Act, which established the United States courts and defined their jurisdiction, confirmed the existing right of the common-law courts, by providing that the federal District Courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction of ‘all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, saving to suitors in all eases the right of a common-law remedy where the common law is competent to give it.’ The common-law remedy here mentioned is the right of a plaintiff to proceed in personam against a defendant; which remedy the common law is competent to give. * * * “Sec. 129. Therefore a suitor who has a claim of seamen’s wages, or for breach of charter or other similar demand, may sue thereon in admiralty, or in a common-law court. The case is nothing but con tract, and the common-law court is competent to give the remedy. A common-law court may entertain an action of collision against the shipowner as a common-law action of tort, though it is not competent to give the peculiar remedy of a division of the damages, which an admiralty court may give. A common-law court may entertain a contract suit for salvage, and even ’a suit for salvage not on former contract, basing its jurisdiction on an implied contract. * * *””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Knickerbocker Ice Co. v. Stewart · Mailloux v. Elxnit