Darby's v. Mayer’s Empirical Analysis
23 U.S. 465 · 1825
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 1 district · 14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 1966
2 federal appellate · 1 district · 14 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.
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.
““ It is true that the generality of the terms in the first lines pf this clause is such as would, if unrestricted by the context, embrace wills of lands. It is also true that the previous chapter in- the same article prescribes the formalities necessary to.give validity to devises of real estate; it is further true that the previous sections, of the second chapter indicate the means, and impose the duty of delivering up wills of all descriptions to the register of the court of probates, for safekeeping, after the death of the testator, and until they shall be demanded by some person authorized to demand them for the purpose of proving them. “ But it is equally true that the act does not authorize the registering of any will without probate. Nor does it, in any one of its provisions, relate to the probate of any wills, except wills of goods and chattels. “ The clause recited makes evidence of such wills only, as are recorded in the offices of courts authorized to record them. But when the power of taking probate is expressly limited to the probate of wills of goods and chattels, we see not with what propriety the meaning of the clause in question can be extended 'to wills of any other description. The orphans’ court may take probates of wills, though -they affect lands, provided they also affect goods and chattels; but the will, nevertheless, is conclusively established only as to the personalty. “ Unless the words be explicit and imperative to the contrary, the construction m”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Campbell v. Porter
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.