Tate v. LeMaster’s Empirical Analysis
1957
Citation profile
21 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently June 2013
21 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 Pembroke v. Caudill · William Van Buren v. William H Digges Use of Joseph Liebey · Evans v. Moseley · Dill v. Lumbermen's Mut. Ins. Co. · Brown v. Hill
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.
““Whether such a stipulation is one for liquidated damages or for a penalty is, of course, primarily a matter of the intention of the parties. Implicit in the meaning of ‘liquidated damages’ is the idea of compensation; in that of ‘penalty’,' the idea of punishment. Thus, where the sum stipulated is reasonably intended by the parties as the predetermined measure of compensation for actual damages that might be sustained by reason of nonperformance, the stipulation is for liquidated damages; and where the stipulation is not based upon actual damages in the contemplation of the parties, but is intended to provide punishment for the breach of the contract, the sum stipulated is a penalty. If it be clear that the stipulation is for liquidated damages, breach of the contract will generally entitle the offended party to retain or recover the sum stipulated, and neither more nor less, without proof of damage actually sustained; but the language used by the parties is not conclusive of the question of whether the stipulation is for liquidated damages or for penalty. If the provision be for a penalty, recovery is measured not by the sum stipulated, but by the amount of actual damage proven to have been sustained as a result of the breach.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“A ... forfeiture, is `that which is lost, or the right to which is alienated, by a crime, offense, neglect of duty, or breach of contract.'”
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.