Butcher v. Tinkle’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

19 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The plea of not guilty in a trespass to try title suit was first provided for by the Congress of the Republic of Texas in 1844. Gammel’s Laws of Texas, Vol. 2, pp. 69, 70. In the case of Harlan’s Heirs v. Haynie, 9 Tex. 459 , nine years after the passage of such Act, the court held that under a general denial the defendant could attack the sufficiency of plaintiff’s title, saying: “ ‘The general denial put the ap-pellee upon proof of his right to recover the land in controversy; and that proof must be sufficient for the purpose. The Supreme Court, in the case of Mason v. Russel’s [Heirs], 1 Tex. [721], 726, not only determined that such was the effect of the general denial, in actions of trespass, but that, under it, proof having relation to objections dehors the grant, was admissible.’ “In the case of Robb v. Robb, Tex.Civ.App., 41 S.W. 92 , it was held that in an action to determine title to the land where the defendant pleads the general denial, a deed conveying the land to defendant is admissible and that the court could not properly reject such deed upon the ground that the pleadings of appellant did not authorize its admission. Under these authorities the deed from N. E. Tinkle to J. H. Tinkle, of date April 13, 1940, was admissible under a plea of general denial.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brinkley v. Brinkley

2. “Where the losing party perfects an appeal by filing the statutory affidavit of his inability to pay costs and the same is not contested, he is entitled as a matter of right to have the court reporter deliver to him a statement of facts in narrative form. Whenever the court reporter fails or refuses to prepare and deliver such statement of facts, it then becomes the duty of the trial judge to order such court reporter to prepare and deliver such statement of facts. (Italics added) Id. at 230 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Perez v. McGar