Weems Steamboat Company of Baltimore City v. People's Steamboat Company D’s Empirical Analysis
214 U.S. 345 · 1909
Citation profile
15 federal appellate · 9 district · 20 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 74 later decisions (12 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2011 · most notably Southern Pacific Terminal Company v. Interstate Commerce Commission (1911), Block v. Hirsh (1921)
15 federal appellate · 9 district · 20 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Munn v. Illinois · Shively v. Bowlby · Illinois Central Railroad v. Illinois · Yates v. Milwaukee · Donovan v. Pennsylvania 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 74 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[i]n a case of wharfing out . . . `[t]he rights of a riparian owner upon a navigable stream in this country are governed by the law of the state in which the stream is situated.'”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““A private wharf on a navigable stream is thus held to be property which cannot be destroyed or its value impaired, and it is property the exclusive use of which the owner can only be deprived in accordance with established law, and if necessary that it or any part of it be taken for the public use due compensation must be made. The owner of a private wharf on a navigable stream does not, on that account only, hold it by a different title from the owner of any other property which he may use himself or permit others whom he may select to use, while at the same time denying its use by any one else.””
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.