Harris v. Harrington’s Empirical Analysis
1942
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently April 2016
3 federal appellate · 19 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 Shearman v. Christian · Orr v. Pennington · Trust Co. v. Fletcher · Gordon v. Funkhouser · Forrest v. Hawkins
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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The purpose of the addition to the statute was to correct an unfair practice which had developed, by which claim adjusters would hasten to the scene of an accident and obtain written statements from all eye-witnesses. Frequently, these statements were neither full nor correct and were signed by persons who had not fully recovered from shock and hence were not in full possession of their faculties. Later, such persons, when testifying as witnesses, would be confronted with their signed statements and, after admitting their signatures, these statements would be introduced in evidence as impeachment of their testimony given on the witness stand.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“But this section is subject to this qualification, that in an action to recover for a personal injury or death by wrongful act or neglect, no ex parte affidavit or statement in writing other than a deposition, after due notice, of a witness as to the facts or circumstances attending the wrongful act or neglect complained of, shall be used to contradict him as a witness in the case.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Counsel for plaintiff relies upon the case of Washington etc. Ry. Co. v. Weakley, 140 Va. 796 , 125 S.E. 672 , in which case Judge Christian, speaking for the Special Court, stated that when it became apparent "that it was the intention of counsel for the defendant to contradict the witness by a prior inconsistent written statement," the Trial Judge was correct in refusing to admit any testimony in reference thereto. In the case at bar, the counsel who attempted to impeach the adverse witness made no reference to a written statement but confined his questions to oral statements made by the witness.”
1 later decision 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.