Homer Ramsdell Transportation Company v. La Compagnie Generale Transatlantique’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

120 federal appellate · 57 district · 14 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 287 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]he object of a legislature, in establishing [such] pilots, has been to secure, as far as possible, protection to life and property, by supplying a class of men better qualified than ordinary mariners to take charge of ships in places where, from local causes, navigation is attendant with more than common difficulty. To effect this object, it has in general been made the duty of a master in every ship, on arriving at any of the places in question, to take a pilot on board, and to give up to him the navigation of the vessel. The master, however well qualified to conduct the ship himself, is bound under a penalty in a great measure to divest himself of its control and to give up the charge to the pilot. As a necessary consequence, the master and owners are exempted from responsibility for acts resulting from the mismanagement of the pilot.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 538 F. Supp. 1038 - Texaco Trinidad, Inc. v. Afran Transport Co.

2. ““The master of a ship, and the owner also, is liable for any injury done by the negligence of the crew employed in the ship. The same doctrine will apply to the ease of a pilot, employed 'by the master or owner, by whose negligence any injury happens to a third person or his property; as, for example, by a collision with another ship, occasioned by his negligence. And it will make no difference in the case, that the pilot, if any is employed, is required to be a licensed pilot; provided the master is at liberty to take a pilot, or not, at his pleasure; for, in such a ease, the master acts voluntarily, although he is necessarily required to select from a particular class.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. The Helen

3. ““Any person not holding a license as pilot under this act, or under the laws of the State of New Jersey, who shall pilot or offer to pilot any ship or vessel .to or from the port of New York by the way of Sandy Hook, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars or imprisonment not exceeding sixty days; and all persons employing a person to act as pilot not holding a license under this act, or under the laws of the State of New Jersey, shall forfeit and pay to the board of' commissioners of pilots the sum of one hundred dollars.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. The Hathor