Vicksburg v. Vicksburg Waterworks Co.’s Empirical Analysis
206 U.S. 496 · 1907
Citation profile
21 federal appellate · 25 district · 45 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 138 later decisions (12 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2003 · most notably Wilcox v. Consolidated Gas Co. (1909), Home Telephone Telegraph Company v. City of Los Angeles (1908)
21 federal appellate · 25 district · 45 state decisions — followed in 20 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on City of Walla Walla v. Walla Walla Water Co · Hanley v. Donoghue · Liverpool Steam Co v. Phenix Ins Co · Knoxville Water Company v. Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Knoxville · Vicksburg v. Vicksburg Waterworks Co.
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 138 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““A grant in general terms of an authority to fix rates is not a renunciation of the legislative control, so as to secure reasonable rates. Such a grant evinces merely a purpose to confer power to exact compensation which shall be just and reasonable. It is only where there is an unmistakable manifestation of the purpose to place the unrestricted right in the corporation to determine rates of compensation that the power of the legislature afterwards to interfere can be denied. It is not to be presumed that the right of legislative control was intended to be renounced. Every presumption is against that. If the grant can be interpreted without ascribing to the legislature an intent to part with any power, it will be done. Only what is plainly parted with is gone.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““In the cases generally in this court it will be found that, in determining the matter of contract, the local decisions have been given much weight, and ordinarily followed. As this is a Mississippi contract, and the power was exercised under an act of the Legislature of that state, we naturally look to the decisions of the courts of that state, particularly to such as had given construction to similar charters at the time the contract was made, with a view to determining the extent of the power conferred.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““But a decree must be read in the light of the issues involved in the pleadings and the relief sought, and we are of the opinion that the matters now litigated were not involved in or disposed of in the former ease, and that, when properly construed, the decree does not finally dispose of the right of the city to regulate rates under a law passed after the contract wont into effect and long after the bill was filed in the case.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.