Kahn v. Janowski’s Empirical Analysis
1948
Citation profile
2 district · 25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 27 later decisions — most recently October 2005 · most notably Canaras v. Lift Truck Services, Inc. (1974), Cheek v. United Healthcare of the Mid-Atlantic, Inc. (2003)
2 district · 25 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 Express Company v. Railroad Company · Poe v. Ulrey · Sanders v. Brock · Young v. Cockman · Plitt v. Kaufman
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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““* * * It is an accepted rule that where parties are competent to contract, neither party can be relieved from his promises merely because he did not use good business judgment or because the contract was not as profitable as expected, in the absence of fraud, undue influence or mistake in making the agreement. Poe v. Ulrey, 233 Ill. 56 , 84 N. E. 46 ; Lea v. Blokland, 122 Or. 230 , 257 P. 801 . Generally the parties to a contract may provide that it may be rescinded at the option of either party, and may fix the rights and liabilities of each in the event of such rescission. * * * Where the right to terminate a contract is reserved in the instrument itself, in the absence of fraud, undue influence, or mistake, such reservation is valid and will be enforced, if not contrary to equity and good conscience.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“On the other hand, the doctrine has been adopted in equity that conditions and clauses of nullity are not to be executed according to the rigor of their terms so as to cause forfeitures, but each case should be submitted to the discretion of the court for a decision according to the nature and object of the provisions and all the circumstances of the case. This doctrine had long been established in the Roman law upon the principles of natural justice. The jurisdiction to relieve against forfeitures is exercised on the principle that a party having a legal right shall not be permitted to avail himself of it for purposes of injustice and oppression. As Justice Story pointed out, equity should mold the law of penalties and forfeitures into harmony with more humane standards of conduct, and provide some means of preventing the mischiefs of improvidence and blind confidence on the one side, and cunning and avarice and a gross violation of morality on the other. 3 Story, Equity Jurisprudence, 14th Ed. sec. 1728.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“reserved to either the seller or the purchasers the option to rescind the contract at any time up to December 1, 1948, with the proviso that in the case of rescission, the monthly payments made by the purchasers shall be forfeited and considered as rent for the property.”
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.