Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Co. v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis
229 U.S. 317 · 1913
Citation profile
36 federal appellate · 2 district · 58 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 113 later decisions — most recently June 1983 · most notably Atlantic Transport Company of West Virginia v. Frank Imbrovek (1914), San Antonio Aransas Pass Railway Company v. William Wagner (1916)
36 federal appellate · 2 district · 58 state decisions — followed in 21 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
reviewedChicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Brown (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on St Louis Iron Mountain Southern Railway Company v. May Taylor W · Chicago Burlington Quincy Railway Company v. United States · The Germanic · Texas & Pacific Railway Co. v. Harvey
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 113 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The uncoupling was to be done by means of shoving the cars in motion. Had the safety appliance been in order, this could have been accomplished by defendant in error while walking at the side of the train. But the safety appliance on the side of the car on which he was working at the time would not operate. He gave three or four jerks to it, which failed to open the coupler.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The railway company starts its contentions with a concession of its own culpability in sending Brown to his duty to encounter defective appliances and then seeks to relieve itself from liability by a charge against him of a careless judgment in its execution.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“"Under the Safety Appliance Acts the failure of a coupler to work at any time sustains a charge of negligence on the x)art of the carrier.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Clark v. Erie R.
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.