Eddy v. Morgan’s Empirical Analysis
1905
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 61 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 75 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 1998 · most notably Dodge v. Board of Education (1937), People Ex Rel. Donovan v. Retirement Board of the Policemen's Annuity & Benefit Fund (1927)
5 federal appellate · 61 state decisions — followed in 13 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 Frisbie v. United States · Walton v. Cotton · Woods v. Soucy · Thompson v. Alexander · Marsh v. Chesnut
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 75 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““A pension is a bounty springing from the graciousness and appreciation of sovereignty. It may be given or withheld at the pleasure of a sovereign power. Because one is placed upon a pension-roll under a valid law is no reason why that law may not be repealed and the pension cease.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. In re Snyder · Bedford v. White““We are unable to find ii5 the words or provisions of the act that which satisfied our minds that it was the intention of the Legislature that it should have a retrospective effect. Section 3, alone of the act of 1887. was amended, and the Legislature saw fit to preserve to the policemen then in service the rights that had accrued by virtue of the act of 1887, and to confer upon the widows that should survive such officers the right they had not before that time had to succeed to the pension of their deceased husbands who had died in retirement. We may say the act went further, and preserved the rights not only of the- officers in active service, but of the officers drawing pensions under retirement by virtue of the act of 1887. But to say that, where a retired officer had died while drawing a pension, and previous to the amendment, it is the intention of the act to confer the pension her deceased husband had been drawing, or any pension upon his widow, is more than we are able to do.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““It is the duty of the courts (in construing a statute) to confine themselves to the words of the legislature, nothing adding thereto, nothing diminishing.” (Eddy v. Morgan, 216 Ill. 437 , 75 N. E. 174 ; 36 Cyc. 1106.) “In construing a constitution the thing to be sought is the thought expressed.” (Lewis v. Doron, 5 Nev. 399 .)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Jensen v. Pradere
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.