Burns v. . McCormick’s Empirical Analysis
1922
Citation profile
11 federal appellate · 107 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 162 later decisions — most recently November 2018 · most notably Foreman v. Foreman (1929), Chevalier v. Lane's, Inc. (1948)
11 federal appellate · 107 state decisions — followed in 13 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.
Relationships
Relies on Wood v. . Rabe · Woolley v. . Stewart · Wheeler v. . Reynolds · Goldsmith v. . Goldsmith · 7 E.H. Smith 596 - Cooley v. . Lobdell
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 162 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““must be performance ‘unequivocally referable’ to the agreement, performance which alone and without the aid of words or promise is unintelligible or at least extraordinary unless as an incident of ownership assured, if not existing.” Burns v. McCormick, supra, 233 N.Y. at 232 , 135 N.E. at 273 .”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage““The peril of perjury and error is latent in the spoken promise. Such, at least, is the warning of the statute, the estimate of policy that finds expression in its mandate. Equity, in assuming what is in substance a dispensing power, does not treat the statute as irrelevant, nor ignore the warning altogether. It declines to act on words, though the legal remedy is imperfect, unless the words are confirmed and illuminated by deeds. A power of dispensation, departing from the letter in supposed adherence to the spirit, involves an assumption of jurisdiction easily abused, and justified only within the limits imposed by history and precedent. The power is not exercised unless the policy of the law is saved.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Rooney v. Tyson · Ravarino v. Price“buyer who not only pays the price, but possesses and improves his acre, may have relief in equity without producing a conveyance.”
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.