Rocca v. Thompson’s Empirical Analysis
223 U.S. 317 · 1912
Citation profile
31 federal appellate · 14 district · 70 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 192 later decisions (27 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably United States v. Pink (1942), Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft v. Schlunk (1988)
31 federal appellate · 14 district · 70 state decisions — followed in 16 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedRocca v. Thompson
Relationships
Relies on Edye v. Robertson · Whitney v. Robertson · Ross v. McIntyre · Geofroy v. Riggs · Hauenstein v. Lynham
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 192 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[T]reaties are the subject of careful consideration before they are entered into, and are drawn by persons competent to express their meaning and to choose apt words in which to embody the purposes of the high contracting parties. Had it been the intention to commit the administration of estates of citizens of one country, dying in another, exclusively to the consul of the foreign nation, it would have been very easy to have declared that purpose in unmistakable terms.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“so far as the laws of each country will permit,”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[C]ontract[s] ... are to be read in the light of the conditions and circumstances existing at the time they were entered into, with a view to effecting the objects and purposes of the [parties] thereby contracting.”
3 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.