Hiscock v. Mertens’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

47 federal appellate · 22 district · 27 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 115 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Provided, that when any bankrupt shall have any insurance policy which .has a cash surrender value payable to himself, his estate, or personal representatives, he may, within thirty days after the cash surrender value has been ascertained and stated to the trustee by the company issuing the same, pay or secure to the trustee the sum so ascertained and stated, and continue to hold, own, and carry such policy free from the claims of the creditors participating in the distribution of his estate under the bankruptcy proceedings, otherwise the policy shall pass to the trustee as assets.””

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Cohen v. Samuels · In re Draper

2. ““A statute of the United States (the bankruptcy act) provides that life policies of bankrupts shall be subject to administration by the trustee for the benefit of creditors. But this proceeding is not under that statute. Nor can it elucidate1 the principle under consideration to note the decisions of the federal court expounding that statute, although it might be noted, in passing, that Congress seems to. have deemed it necessary to expressly include such policies, or they probably would not have passed under the bankrupt proceedings.” It is- hard to understand how the court could say this in view of the authorities which were before it. The bankruptcy statute is just like our statute, in that it vests in the trustee in bankruptcy all the property of the bankrupt. There then follows certain, exceptions of things which do not pass, and to one of these exceptions is attached this proviso: “Provided, that when any bankrupt shall have any insurance policy which has a cash surrender value payable to himself, his estate or personal rep'resentatives, he may, within thirty days after the cash surrender value has been ascertained and stated to the trustee by the company issuing the same, pay or secure to the trustee the sum so ascertained and stated, and continue to hold, own and carry such policy free from the claims participating in the distribution of his estate under the bankruptcy proceedings-, otherwise the policy shall pass to the trustee as asséts.” Construing this proviso in ”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Gannon · Townsend's Assignee v. Townsend

3. ““The provisions in section 70a of the Bankruptcy Act of 1898 that a bankrupt, having policies of life insurance payable to himself and which have a cash surrender value, may pay the trustee such value and thereafter hold the policies free' from the claims of creditors,, are not confined to policies in which the cash surrender value is expressly stated, but permit the redemption by the bankrupt of policies having a cash surrender value by the concession or practice of the company issuing the same.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Draper