Frank Thompson v. Henry Fairbanks’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

167 federal appellate · 159 district · 74 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 528 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"The trustee claims that he takes the same kind of title as a bona fide purchaser for value, but the rule applicable to this and all similar cases is that the trustee takes the property of the bankrupt not as an innocent purchaser, but as the debtor had it at the time of the petition, subject; to all valid claims, lions, and equities. * * * The trustee took tile bankrupt’s property in the same condition, and subject to the same liens, as the bankrupt himself held it. The trustee is in no sense a bona fide purchaser for value and entitled to protection as such.””

   21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Bush v. Export Storage Co. · In re Cramond

2. ““Although this after-acquired property was subject to the lieu of an attaching or an execution creditor, if perfected before the mortgagee took possession under his mortgage, yet, if there was no such creditor, the enforcement of the lien by taking possession would be legal, even if within the four months provided in the act. There is a distinction between the bald creation of a lien within the four months, and the enforcement of one provided for in a mortgage executed years before the passage of the act, by virtue of which mortgage- and because of the condition broken the title to the property becomes vested in the mortgagee, and the subsequent taking possession becomes valid, except as above stated. A trustee in bankruptcy does not in- such circumstances occupy the same position as a creditor levying under an execution, or by attachment, and his rights, in this exceptional case, and for the rea-sons just indicated, are somewhat different from what they are generally stated. Mueller v. Nugent, 184 U. S. 1 , 22 Sup. Ct. 269 , 46 L. Ed. 405 .””

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Fisher v. Zollinger · Sexton v. Kessler & Co.

3. ““There is no pretense of any actual fraud being committed or contemplated by either party to the mortgage. Instead of taking possession at the time of the execution of the mortgage, the defendant had it recorded in the proper clerk’s office, and the record stood as notice to all the world of the existence of the lien as it stood when the mortgage was executed, and that the defendant would have the right to take possession of property subsequently acquired as provided for in the mortgage. The bankrupt was, therefore, not holding himself out as unconditional owner of the property, and there was no securing of credit by reason of his apparent unconditional ownership. The record gave notice that he was not such unconditional owner. There was no secret lien, and if defendant cannot secure the benefit of this mortgage, which he obtained in 1869, as a lien upon the after-acquired property, yet prior to the title of the trustee for the benefit of creditors, it must be because of some provision of the bankruptcy law, which we think the court ought not to construe or endeavor to enforce beyond its fair meaning.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Flint Wagon Works v. Buttles · In re Bird