Hughes v. Cafferty’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “'The distinguishing characteristics of legal remedies are their uniformity, their un-changeableness or fixedness, their lack of adaptation to circumstances, and the technical rules which govern their use.... Equitable remedies, on the other hand, are distinguished by their flexibility, their unlimited variety, [and] their adaptability to circumstances.... The court of equity has the power of devising its remedy and shaping it so as to fit the changing circumstances of every case and the complex relations of all the parties.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Jones v. Layton/Okland

2. “When a court awards attorney fees pursuant to statute or contract, it does so in recognition of a party’s legal right to an award. In contrast, a court making an equitable award of fees is concerned not with a party’s legal entitlement to an award, but with the equities. In other words, the court must ascertain whether the equities of a given case justify the use of its inherent and discretionary power to award fees.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Shipman v. Evans

3. “A party is not necessarily entitled to an equitable award of attorney fees merely because a case falls into one of the categories of cases recognized in Stewart. Rather, trial courts retain disceretion to decide whether an award of attorney fees is appropriate in the interest[s] of justice and equity in any given case.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Ortega v. Guynn