Johnson v. Robbins’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “. . . “And second, all necessary parties have not been brought into court. The Act requires that all persons ‘ shall be made parties’ who have any interest which would be affected by the declaration. Ark. Stats. § 34-2510 [supra]. Elsewhere the court have very sensibly stressed the importance of this requirement, for it is evident that no controversy would be terminated by an adjudication not binding upon everyone concerned. Updike Inv. Co. v. Employers’ Liability Assur. Corp., 128 Neb. 295 , 258 N. W. 470 ; Kilroy v. O’Connor, 324 Mass. 238 , 85 N. E. 2d 441 . A declaratory decree in this case would not bind the County Board of Education, which, though not a party hereto, is required to approve whatever school site is chosen. It follows that a decree would not end the dispute, since the County Board would still be entitled to an opportunity to be heard on the question. We need not now go so far as to say, as some courts have, that the presence of all necessary parties is jurisdictional; for in any event we regard the defect as sufficiently fundamental to be reached by demurrer.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Laman v. Martin · Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Olive's Sporting Goods, Inc.

2. ““Although it is true, as the appellees point out, that arbitrary action on the part of a school board is subject to judicial review, the court even then does not substitute its judgment for that of the board. All that equity does is to restrain a course of conduct found to be arbitrary; the choice of a more reasonable plan is then left to the directors. In the case at bar the third selection is not yet final, in that the County Board of Education has not given its necessary approval. But even if that board had acted it is not the court’s place to lift the matter from the hands of the two administrative agencies and to make for them the choice that the law commits to their discretion. ' ’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Evans v. McKinley