James Sigafus v. Dudley Porter’s Empirical Analysis
179 U.S. 116 · 1900
Citation profile
113 federal appellate · 20 district · 71 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 240 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 1990 · most notably Blackie v. Barrack (1975), Myzel v. Fields (1967)
113 federal appellate · 20 district · 71 state decisions — followed in 20 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
reviewedSigafus v. Porter (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Columbia Co v. Hawthorne · Smith v. Bolles · Runkle v. Burnham · Union Pac Ry Co v. Snyder
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 240 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“expected fruits of an unrealized speculation.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'The true measure of damages ... is the loss which he has sustained, and not the profits which he might have made by the transaction. It excludes all speculation, and is limited to compensation.'”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the difference between the real value of the property at the date of its sale to the plaintiffs and the price paid for it, with interest from that date, and, in addition, such outlays as were legitimately attributable to the defendant's conduct, but not damages covering 'the expected fruits of an unrealized speculation' (Smith v. Bolles, 132 U.S. 125 , 130, 10 S.Ct. 39, 33 L.Ed. 279 (1889)).”
4 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.