Boyd v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 46 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 49 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The attorneys for plaintiff must have realized that plaintiff could not recover upon his testimony alone. * * * They called the defendant, the only eye-witness, seeking some additional fact which would sustain the right of plaintiff to a recovery. They were, therefore, bound by such of his statements as were clear, logical, and reasonable, and not in conflict with evidence introduced on behalf of the plaintiff. As we said, under a similar situation, in Saunders v. Temple, 154 Va. 714 , 153 S. E. 691 : ‘The difficulty which the court has in taking their view of the record as a whole is the same difficulty which they had before they attempted to extract some incriminating evidence from the defendant as a witness. That obstacle to a recovery is the fundamental rule that the burden always rests upon the plaintiff to establish his case by the weight of the testimony. The defendant cannot be held responsible for the negligence charged upon a bare “perhaps”.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Nosay v. Owens

2. ““If you believe from the evidence that the defendant, James Kenneth Perkins, did not see, and by the exercise of ordinary care could not have seen, Ronald Leland Bickley, in close proximity to the street, and that Ronald Leland Bickley, suddenly entered the street from behind an obstruction into the path of the defendant’s oncoming vehicle and so closely thereto that the defendant, James Kenneth Perkins, had no reasonable opportunity to avoid striking Ronald Leland Bickley, after seeing him, and that the defendant, James Kenneth Perkins, was otherwise exercising ordinary care, then you shall return your verdict in favor of the defendants, James Kenneth Perkins and W. D. Perkins and Sons.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Bickley v. Farmer

3. ““Stated generally, the rule is that if a driver sees, or should have seen, the presence of a child in or near the street that the law imposes upon him the duty to take into consideration that the child might act thoughtlessly and upon childish impulses, and requires him to exercise that degree of care that a person of ordinary prudence would exercise, under similar facts and circumstances, to avoid danger of injury to the child.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Virginia Transit Company v. Schain