Whitaker v. Yates’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The applicable law, as adjudged by this and other courts, is that, where the right to the easement is acquired by prescription, the owner of the dominant estate, and who becomes entitled to the easement, acquires the right as against the owner of the servient estate to have it maintained in the same condition it was while it was being acquired by the adverse user, provided, however, that during that time the passway was fenced on both sides and was used as a lane without gates or other obstructions at the termini or elsewhere. A right so acquired entitles the owner of the easement to have it maintained without gates or other obstructions; but, if, during the time of the acquisition of the right by the adverse user, the passway traversed woodland or was not fenced on both sides, then the owner of the servient estate has the right to erect gates across it at its termini, so as not to unreasonably obstruct its use, when it becomes necessary for the reasonable use of some portion of his land.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Kinkade v. Lyons