Torch v. Constantino’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently March 2018
23 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.
Relationships
Relies on Johnson v. Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency · Goldman v. Quadrato · Hostetter v. Commonwealth · 185 Pa. Super. 385 - Guerra v. GALATIC · Evans v. Erie County
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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Thus, the question before us is whether land held for tax sale after return for nonpayment of taxes tolls the prescription period.... Flowing through the numerous acts of assembly dealing with the problem of nonpayment of real estate taxes is the clear intent of the legislature amounting to a public policy to make tax sales and tax titles more attractive to prospective purchasers so that owned by local government by virtue of nonpayment of taxes can be more promptly sold and the land restored to the assessment lists. The big problem in the past that the legislature has strived to change is the many impediments placed on tax titles that drive purchasers away from tax sales. The holding that title to property held by the county for nonpayment of taxes can be obtained by adverse possession is another such impediment deterring prospective purchasers. ... ‘The tendency of modem legislation is to strengthen tax titles. Because they were subject to attack for technical, even trifling, irregularities, they were snares and delusions, and people have been unwilling to invest in them. As a consequence, the coffers of our political subdivisions are cumbered with properties acquired at tax sales for which there is no ready market, and yet, because taxes upon them remain unpaid and accumulate from year to year, the subdivision is deprived of needful current revenue. The statute is an attempt to correct this condition by making tax titles more attractive and therefore more readily marketab”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“There is no question that adverse possession will not lie against lands held by the Federal Government. Nor can a claim of adverse possession be asserted against the Commonwealth. As to political subdivisions, such as counties, townships and boroughs the rule seems to be that title by presumption against such governing bodies, and in this case, may be asserted unless the land in question is devoted to public use. (citations omitted and emphasis added).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“delinquent taxes as a trustee for the taxing district so that real estate does not lie fallow and that tax titles are so improved as to attract buyers and restore real estate to the tax lists.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.