Williams v. Patterson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “DAVID DAY DEED TO L.N.O. AND T.R.R.C. For the consideration of Eight Hundred Dollars to me paid, receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, I hereby give, grant, bargain, convey and sell to the Louisville New Orleans and Texas Rail Road Company for Right of Way, a strip of land 100 feet wide that is 50 feet on each side of the center of the Road bed now constructed thereon and through and across Section 20, Lots 2, 3, 4 & 5 of Section 21, Section 13, SE/4 of SW/4 of Section 29. SE/4 of NW/4 and W/2 of NW/4 of Section 31, Section 30 Township 4, Range 1 East and Section 36 in Township 4 Range 2 East, situated partly in Amite and partly in Wilkinson Counties Mississippi and extending over and across any other lands owned by me in said Counties. To have and to hold unto the said Rail Road Company and its assigns forever for the purpose of building and constructing and operating a line of Rail Road on said Right of Way and the said Rail Road Company to have the right to dig earth, quarry rock, cut timber and do such other things on said right of way as are necessary and convenient in constructing and operating its line of Rail Road thereon, and to fell any timber beyond the right of way herein granted, which is sufficiently near the track of said Road to fall on and obstruct the same. Witness my Signature this the 21st day of Jany [sic] 1887. David Day”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 601 So. 2d 834 - Crum v. Butler

2. “It is further argued that appellant by himself and through his predecessors in title acquired title to this land by adverse possession of more than fifty years, and cites an Illinois case, Illinois Central R. Co. v. Noyes, 252 Ill. 178 , 96 N.E. 830 , where the Illinois Court held that if a railroad company condemned land for a right of way and paid therefor, it could obtain a fee-simple title thereto by adverse possession for the statutory period. However, the general rule is thus announced in 2 C.J.S. Adverse Possession § 89, p. 646. `Claim or use of an easement is consistent with, rather than hostile to, the title of another to the fee, and possession attributable to the easement will not be regarded as adverse to the fee title of another unless and until there is notice of a hostile claim to the fee.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 406 So. 2d 329 - Hattiesburg Rlty. Co. v. Miss. State Hwy. Com'n

3. “"By the purchase of the lands, to which the passway was appurtenant, and by their deeds conveying the passway, defendant and his grantors acquired a mere easement over the land in question. Clearly, where a party has an easement over the land of another, he cannot change the character of his right to an adverse holding of the land itself, unless he either gives the true owner actual notice or his acts and declarations of a hostile claim are so open and notorious as to leave no doubt in the mind of the true owner."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 751 So. 2d 2 - Blalock v. Conzelman