Brashier v. Gratz’s Empirical Analysis
19 U.S. 528 · 1821
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 1 district · 34 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 59 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 1944 · most notably Joseph Guffey v. James a Smith (1915), Waterman v. Banks (1892)
4 federal appellate · 1 district · 34 state decisions — followed in 17 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.
Relationships
Relies on Pratt v. Thomas Law · Partt and of Others v. Carroll
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 59 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The appellant insists that, in equity, time is not of the essence of the contract; that it is in part performed, and that his failure to pay the purchase money until December, 1813, when the tender was made, is justified by the circumstances of the case. “The rule that time is not of the essence of the contract has certainly been recognized in courts of equity, and there can be no doubt that a failure on the part of a purchaser or vendor to perform his contract on a stipulated day does not of itself deprive him of his right to demand a specific performance at a subsequent date, when he shall be able to comply with his part of the engagement. * * * But the rule is not universal. Circumstances may be so changed that he who is injured by failure of the other contracting party cannot be placed in the situation in which he would have stood had the contract been performed. Under such circumstances, it would be iniquitous to decree a specific performance, and a court of equity will leave the parties to their remedy at law.” And again: “This, then, is a demand for .specific performance after a considerable lapse of time, made by a person who has failed totally to perform his part of the contract; and it is made after a great change, both in the title and in the value, of that which was the subject of the contract,, and by a person who could not have been compelled to execute his part of it, had circumstances taken an unfavorable direction.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““If, then, a bill for a specific performance be brought by a party who is himself in fault, the court will consider all the circumstances of the case, and decree according to those circumstances.” Brashier v. Gratz, 6 Wheat. 534 , 5 L. Ed. 322 .”
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.