Burton v. Oldfield’s Empirical Analysis
1954
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 34 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 37 later decisions — most recently November 2013 · most notably Stockton v. Commonwealth (1991), Krizak v. W. C. Brooks & Sons, Inc. (1963)
3 federal appellate · 34 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 Crouse v. Pugh · Wise Terminal Co. v. McCormick · Burton v. Oldfield · Director General of Railroads v. Gordon
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 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In order to establish a right to introduce testimony of a witness given at a former trial, it is incumbent upon the proponent of such evidence to lay a proper predicate for its introduction by showing the unavailability of the witness who gave the testimony sought to be produced. In other words, the burden of satisfying the court of the validity of the excuse for nonproduction of witness lies upon the party seeking to introduce the testimony given by him at the former trial. It must be shown either that the witness is dead, insane, or beyond the jurisdiction of the court or on diligent inquiry cannot be found or that some other circumstance exists which shows that the witness who gave the testimony at the former trial cannot be produced as witness on the second trial.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Sapp v. Commonwealth““Such testimony is not open to the objections ordinarily urged against hearsay, because it has been delivered under the sanction of an oath and subject to the right of the adverse party to cross-examine the witness giving it. It is admitted on the principle that it is the best of which the case admits.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“it is well established that the sufficiency of the proof to establish the unavailability of a witness is largely within the discretion of the trial [judge], and, in the absence of a showing that such discretion has been abused, will not be interfered with on appeal.”
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.