Carr v. Morrison’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Where the land is sold with an option reserved to the vendor to repurchase it by the payment of a certain sum within a specified time, the sale is known as a conditional sale, and will become absolute upon the failure to pay the stipulated sum at the time specified. The vendor in such a transaction is not entitled to an equity of redemption, but can only enforce the agreement to resell if the payment is made as required. A conditional sale may, in equity, be shown to be a mortgage upon the same principles as in the case of a deed absolute on its face. If it appears that the parties intended the conditional sale to operate as a security for the debt, equity will treat the transaction in all respects as a mortgage. The intention of the parties, as ascertained by considering their situation, and the surrounding facts, as well as the written memorials of the transaction, furnish the criterion for the distinction. . . . “The true test, therefore, whether a conveyance is a mortgage or not, is to ascertain whether it is a security for the payment of money, or for the performance or non-performance of any act or thing. If the transaction resolves itself into a security, whatever be its form, it is, in equity, a mortgage. If it is not a security then it is either an absolute sale or a conditional purchase. If the debt is extinguished, leaving the grantor to pay or not, as he chooses, and thereby entitle himself to a reconveyance, the transaction operates as a conditional sale. Horbac”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sutton v. Hardison

2. ““The ground of the Kentucky rule is that, if a. deed was intended to operate as a mortgage, it would be a fraudulent act on the part of the grantee to insist upon its being absolute. And, when a doubt exists as to whether the writing is a deed or a mortgage, that doubt will be resolved in favor of the debtor and the writing construed to be a mortgage. Tygret v. Potter & Co., 97 Ky. 57 ; Charles v. Thacker, 167 Ky. 838 , and the cases there cited.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Henderson v. Adams