Willis v. Ford’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[W]hen a defendant moves for judgment based on an affirmative defense, or upon the legal insufficiency of the plaintiffs evidence, the trial judge must determine if there is any evidence, no matter how slight, that is legally sufficient to generate a jury question, and if there is, the motion must be denied and the case submitted to the jury. It is only when the facts and circumstances only permit one inference with regard to the issue presented, that the issue is one of law for the court and not one of fact for the jury. An appellate court must review the grant or denial of a motion for judgment by conducting the same analysis as the trial judge.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh v. Fund for Animals, Inc.