Mason v. Wrightson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 14 district · 55 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 71 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““[w]hen a peace officer goes beyond the scope of the law he may become liable civilly and is not shielded by the immunity of the law.... The fact that the [policeman] was acting under orders of a superior officer does not relieve him of civil liability for his actions which are illegal and beyond the scope of duty....””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Ashton v. Brown · Ritchie v. Donnelly

2. ““The remaining question is whether the appellant is entitled to recover any damages, and if so, how much. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to estimate the appellant’s damages on a pecuniary basis, and there was no proof thereof. Though there are exceptions to this rule, as in conspiracy cases, where damage is the gist of the action or an essential element of the tort (Horn v. Seth, 201 Md. 589 , 95 A. 2d 312 ), we do not regard this case as falling within such exceptions, but as coming within the rule recognized in Coca-Cola Bottling Works v. Catron, 186 Md. 156, 164 , 46 A. 2d 303, 306 ; and Salisbury Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. Lowe, 176 Md. 230 , 4 A. 2d 440 , under which, as was said in Horn v. Seth, 201 Md. 589, 597 , 95 A. 2d 312 , 316, in referring to these cases, ‘* * * if damage is shown in a tort action, the defendant is not entitled to a directed verdict merely because the monetary amount is not proven, even though the defendant may be entitled to an instruction, if requested, limiting recovery to nominal damages.’ We think that the humiliation incidental to the search here made does show some damage. As was said in Baltimore v. Appold, 42 Md. 442: ‘It is well settled that every injury to the rights of another imports damages, and if no other damage is established, the party injured is at least entitled to a verdict for nominal damages.’ ” Id. at 488-89 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Bugg v. Brown

3. “[w]hen a peace officer goes beyond the scope of the law he may become liable civilly and is not shielded by the immunity of the law. The fact that the appellee was acting under orders of a superior officer does not relieve him of civil liability for his actions which are illegal[.]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 149 Md. App. 38 - Lee v. Cline