Davis v. Teche Lines, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
1942
Citation profile
26 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 28 later decisions — most recently November 1963 · most notably Pilie v. National Food Stores of Louisiana, Inc. (1963), Saunders v. Walker (1956)
26 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 Jones v. Shell Petroleum Corporation · Bruchis v. Victory Oil Co.
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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"The rebuttable presumption or inference of negligence arising by virtue of the operation of this rule is predicated upon, and arises only in the absence of, an explanation by the defendant, but the presumption or inference is overcome and rebutted if the defendant's explanation is sufficient to rebut the inference that he had failed to use due care. The burden or duty of explanation is not satisfactorily to account for the occurrence and to show the actual cause of the injury, but merely to rebut the inference that he had failed to use due care. * * * It would be helpful, if the defendant could make the specific cause known, but in cases of this nature, where the cause is unknown to the defendant, it is sufficient explanation when the defendant shows that the occurrence did not result from his negligence or that he had [failed to use] due care. "No hard and fast rule can be set, for the reason that the explanation must be governed by the peculiar facts and circumstance of each case. * * * In a case where no specific act of negligence is proven, and the plaintiff relies solely and only on the inference or presumption arising from the rule of res ipsa loquitur, all that could be required of the defendant is to give an explanation sufficient to rebut the inference or presumption of negligence. It would be unreasonable and unjust to cast the defendant where he has shown due care simply because he was unable to determine the exact cause of the fire."”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“"It appears that this employee willingly and freely gave all the information in his possession as to, the manner in which and where the fire originated.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“the thing which caused the injury complained of is shown to be under the management of defendant or his servants,”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.