City of Chicago v. Frank Sturges’s Empirical Analysis
222 U.S. 313 · 1911
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 12 district · 63 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 89 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 1986 · most notably Wuchter v. Pizzutti (1928), Mountain Timber Company v. State of Washington (1917)
6 federal appellate · 12 district · 63 state decisions — followed in 14 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 Yick Wo v. Hopkins · Huntington v. Attrill · Lawton v. Steele · Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward · Barbier v. Connolly
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 89 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"The policy of imposing liability upon a civil subdivision of government exercising delegated police power is familiar to every student of the common law. We find it recognized in the beginning of the police system of Anglo-Saxon people. Thus `The Hundred,' a very early form of civil subdivision, was held answerable for robberies committed within the division. By a series of statutes, beginning possibly in 1285, in the statutes of Westminster, coming on down to the 27th Elizabeth, the riot act of George I. and act of George II., chap. 10, we may find a continuous recognition of the principle that a civil subdivision intrusted with the duty of protecting property in its midst, and with police power to discharge the function, may be answerable not only for negligence affirmatively shown, but absolutely as not having afforded a protection adequate to the obligation." (emphasis supplied)”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It is a general principle of our law that there is no individual liability for an act which ordinary human care and foresight could not guard against. It is also a general principle of the same law that a loss from any cause purely accidental must rest where it chances to fall. But behind and above these general principles which the law recognizes as ordinarily prevailing, there lies the legislative power, which, in the absence .of organic restraint, may, for the general welfare of society, impose obligations and responsibilities otherwise non-existent. “Primarily, government exists for the maintenance of social order. Hence it is that the obligation of the government to protect life, liberty and property against the conduct of the indifferent, the careless and the evil-minded may be regarded as laying at the very foundation of the social compact. A recognition of this supreme obligation is found in those exertions of the legislative power which have as an end the preservation of social order and the protection of the welfare of the public and of the individual. If such legislation be reasonably adapted to the end in view, affords a hearing before judgment, and is not forbidden by some other affirmative provisions of constitutional law, it is not to be regarded as- denying due process of law' under the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. ’ ’”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“is but a recognition of the obligation of the State to preserve social order and the property of the citizen against the violence of a riot or a mob”
2 later decisions 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.