Graves v. Dennis’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Failure to take advantage of a servitude benefit, even for a lengthy period, is seldom sufficient to persuade a court that abandonment has occurred. Some additional action on the part of the beneficiary inconsistent with continued existence of the servitude is normally required, although the amount of additional evidence required tends to diminish as the period of nonuse grows longer. In cases where a very long period of time has passed, abandonment may be found even without other evidence of intent.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Boyer v. Dennis

2. “`[T]here must be an affirmative act of abandonment on the part of the owner of the easement to extinguish the easement. Mere nonuse of an easement, created by grant, is insufficient to satisfy this requirement.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Swaby v. NORTHERN HILLS REGIONAL RAILROAD AUTH.