Griswold v. . Hart’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 federal appellate · 36 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 43 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““I think we can consistently and logically enunciate but one of two rules—that of the earlier cases based on what is claimed to be a strict construction of the words of the statute, that a witness is disqualified from testifying only in a transaction or conversation in which he takes actual part, or the other rule, that whatever he derives from the personal presence of the deceased by the use of his senses is a communica tión from the deceased to him within the meaning of the statute. . “I appreciate that . . . many persons advocate the admission of interested witnesses to testify to all matters, whether with a deceased person or with others, leaving the credibility of the witnesses to be determined by the court or jury. Whatever may be said of this view it certainly is not the view, which has been taken by the legislature, and of all rules a rule that permits an interested witness to testify to an act or statement by the deceased on which his rights depend, if he takes no part in either, but excludes him if he does, would seem about the worst. It is most easily evaded by the dishonest witness, while often fatal to the conscientious. Nor is the broad exclusion declared in the later cases of this court clearly an enlargement of the statute. Communication is not necessarily confined to conversations. Anything imparted by one to another is communicated by him, even disease. A personal communication, within the meaning of the section, was well defined by the supreme court in Pric”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hadley v. Clabeau · Nicholson v. Kilbury

2. ““Upon the trial of an action . . ., a party or a person interested in the event, or a person from, through or under whom such a party or interested person derives his interest or title by assignment or otherwise, shall not be examined as a witness in his own behalf or interest, . . . against the executor, administrator or survivor of a deceased person . . . , or a person deriving his title or interest from, through or under a deceased, person . . . , by assignment or otherwise, concerning a personal transaction or communication between the witness and the deceased person iy”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Rosenfeld v. Basquiat · Schwerin v. Leibowitz