Smith v. Clark’s Empirical Analysis
1948
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 26 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently October 1997 · most notably Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Co. v. McFerrin (1956), Burcham v. J. P. Stevens & Co. (1954)
5 federal appellate · 26 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 Chesapeake Ferry Co. v. Hudgins · Virginia Electric & Power Co. v. Holland · Reliance Life Insurance v. Gulley's Administratrix · Walker v. Crosen · Wright v. Viar
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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"This court has therefore interpreted this language, `first see that such movement can be made in safety', to mean that it is incumbent upon the driver to use reasonable and ordinary care under the circumstances to see that such movement can be made safely. "The language of the Code section is however susceptible of a construction that would impose upon the driver a higher degree than reasonable care. It could easily be interpreted by a jury as requiring an absolute duty to negotiate the turn without mishap. To guard against this construction, the court has determined that any instruction using the words of the statute, namely, `first see that such movement can be made in safety', must be qualified with appropriate language relieving the driver of the burden of insuring the safety of his turn."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“When, how, and in what manner this movement was made was the factual crux of the case. That the jury be correctly instructed thereon was vital and of material importance.”
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.