2003 Pa. Super. 399 - Commonwealth v. Karetny’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “This is not a case where one or both of the crimes contains elements that the other does not. Although the two crimes on their face do not conflict, as alleged in this case they do. It is simply a matter of how one characterizes what the defendants did (or did not do).... [0]ne can just as easily say that the defendants did not act when they should have, as state that they failed to prevent a catastrophe. Since we can recharacterize the defendants’ alleged acts to fit into the actus reus of either crime, we find the statutes in conflict. Because the Assembly specifically criminalized failing to prevent a catastrophe, we cannot presume that the legislature intended under these facts that the prosecution be able to proceed under either or both statutes.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Karetny

2. “[S]ince the defendants are not alleged to have done anything that caused the pier to collapse, but merely ignored the natural forces and age of the pier and failed to prevent it from collapsing, they cannot be held to have “employ[ed] ... collapse of building,” which resulted in the tragic event.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Karetny