William Willcox v. Consolidated Gas Company of New York No 396’s Empirical Analysis
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 27 district · 165 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 276 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2022 · most notably New York v. United States (1947), Bluefield Waterworks Improvement Co v. Public Service Commission of West Virginia
4 federal appellate · 27 district · 165 state decisions — followed in 42 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 Ex Parte: Edward T Young · Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co. · Cohens v. Virginia · Monongahela Navigation Co. v. United States · Reagan v. Farmers' Loan & Trust 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 276 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Such compensation must depend greatly upon circumstances and locality; among other things, the amount of risk in the business is a most important factor, as well as the locality where the business is conducted and the rate expected and usually realized there upon investments of a somewhat similar nature with regard to the risk attending them”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The contention of the appellant in the present case is that in ascertaining what are just rates the court should take into consideration the cost of its plant, the cost per annum of operating the plant, including interest paid on money borrowed, and reasonably necessary to be used in constructing the same, the annual depreciation of the plant from natural causes resulting from its use, and a fair profit to the company over and above such charges for its services in supplying the water to consumers, either by way of interest on the money it has expended for the public use, or upon some other fair and equitable basis. Undoubtedly all these matters ought to be taken into consideration, and such weight be given them when rates are being fixed as under all the circumstances will be just to the company and the public. The basis of calculation suggested by the appellant is, however, defective in not requiring the real value of the property and the fair value in themselves of the services rendered to be taken into consideration. What the company is entitled to demand, in order that it may have just compensation, is a fair return upon the reasonable value of the property at the time it is being used for the public. The property may have cost more than it ought to have cost, and its outstanding bonds for money borrowed and which went into the plant may be in excess of the real value of the property. So that it cannot be said that the amount of such bonds should in every case control t”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““So far as it is given us to look into the future, it seems as certain, as anything of such a nature can be, that the demand for gas will increase, and, at the reduced price, increase to a considerable extent. An interest in such a business is as near a safe and secure investment as can be imagined with regard to any private manufacturing business.””
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.