Phillips v. Morrow’s Empirical Analysis
1923
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 32 later decisions — most recently April 2001 · most notably Barbara A. Nesmith and Richard A. Nesmith v. H. D. Alford (1963), 405 So. 2d 1 - Chavers v. National SEC. Fire & Cas. Co. (1981)
5 federal appellate · 25 state decisions
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 Broom v. Douglass · Beckwith v. Bean · Johnson v. Williams' Admr. · Abingdon Mills v. Grogan · Coleman v. Pepper
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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“While malice is not an essential element of false imprisonment and the existence or nonexistence of same does not go to the plaintiff's right of action, it will be considered to increase or mitigate the damages. * * * [E]vidence of the ill will of the defendant toward the plaintiff, of the lack of reasonable cause for the imprisonment, or of wanton abuse of the process by the defendant, may be admitted to enhance damages. And on the other hand, evidence of the defendant's good faith, and of his having reasonable grounds to believe that his action was lawful, is admissible to rebut the claim of vindictive damages, but not to reduce the verdict below the actual damages suffered. 11 R.C.L. p. 821; Beckwith v. Bean, 98 U.S. 266 , 25 L.Ed. 124; Rogers v. Wilson, Minor, 407, 12 Am.Dec. 61; Oates v. Bullock, 136 Ala. 537, 33 South. 835, 96 Am.St.Rep. 38; Sanders v. Davis, 153 Ala. 375, 44 South. 979.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.