Stratton's Independence, Ltd. v. Howbert’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

136 federal appellate · 38 district · 47 state decisions

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 456 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Income may be defined as the gain derived from capital, from labor, or from both combined,”

   9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Eisner v. Macomber · Merchants' Loan & Trust Co. v. Smietanka

2. ““But the same is true of the earnings of the human brain and hand when unaided bj capital, yet such earnings are commonly dealt with in legislation as ineome. So it may be-said of many manufacturing corporations that are clearly subject to the act of 1909 [ 36 Stat. 11 ], especially of those that have to do with the production of patented articles; although it may be foretold from tbe beginning that tbe manufacture mil be profitable only for a limited time, at tbe end of which the capital value of the plant must be subject to material depletion, the annual gains of such corporations are certainly to be taken as income for the purpose of measuring the amount of the tax.””

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Chemung Iron Co. v. Lynch · Codman v. Miles

3. ““It was reasonable that Congress should fix upon gross income, without distinction as to source, as a convenient and sufficiently accurate index of the importance of the business transacted. * * * Moreover, Congress evidently intended to adopt a measure of the tax that should be easy of ascertainment and simply and readily applied in practice.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Union Hollywood Water Co. v. Carter · Southern Pac. Co. v. Lowe