Erny v. Sauer’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

31 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 38 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““But we are not impressed with the defendant’s contention that the matter and acts he refers to constitute a consideration which will support the agreement. At the time the writ was issued in this case, the defendant had made default in payment of the semiannual installment of in- ' terest due on July 1, 1910 and January 1, 1911. The plaintiff therefore, on March 1, 1911, the date of the alleged oral agreement, could have proceeded by scire facias, obtained judgment, sold the premises, and collected the indebtedness due him, secured by the bond and mortgage; or, he could have entered at pleasure, taken actual possession, used the land and reaped its profits: Tryon v. Munson, 77 Pa. 250 . If the defendant refused to give possession, he could have been ousted by an action of ejectment. Assuming that he gave possession in pursuance of the alleged parol agreement, he did nothing more than it was his duty to do or what he could have been compelled by legal process to do. No consideration therefore passed to the plaintiff when the defendant voluntarily surrendered possession of the premises to him in pursuance of the agreement: Wimer v. Worth Township Poor Overseers, 104 Pa. 317 ; Fink v. Smith, 170 Pa. 124 ; Dunn v. Washington Building & Loan Association, 2 Penny. 109. In the Fink case it is said (p. 128): ‘A promise made by the owner to obtain possession of his goods, which at the time are wrongfully withheld from him, is without consideration.’ Mr. Justice Trunkey delivering the”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 31 Wash. 2d 228 - Harris v. Morgensen