Williams v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.’s Empirical Analysis
236 U.S. 549 · 1915
Citation profile
215 federal appellate · 73 district · 85 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 962 later decisions (31 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2019 · most notably Local Loan Co. v. Hunt (1934), Perez. v. Campbell (1971)
215 federal appellate · 73 district · 85 state decisions — followed in 18 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 Wetmore v. Markoe · Lau Ow Bew v. United States · In re Chapman · Crawford v. Burke
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 962 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“to relieve the honest debtor from the weight of oppressive indebtedness and permit him to start afresh free from the obligations and responsibilities consequent upon business misfortunes.”
32 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“relieve the honest debtor from the weight of oppressive indebtedness and permit him to start afresh.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage“It is the purpose of the Bankrupt Act to convert the assets of the bankrupt into cash for distribution among creditors and then to relieve the honest debtor from the weight of oppressive indebtedness and permit him to start afresh free from the obligations and responsibilities consequent upon business misfortunes. Wetmore v. Markoe, 196 U.S. 68, 77 [ 25 S.Ct. 172, 175 , 49 L.Ed. 390 ]; Zavelo v. Reeves, 227 U.S. 625, 629 [ 33 S.Ct. 365, 367 , 57 L.Ed. 676 ]; Burlingham v. Crouse, 228 U.S. 459, 473 [ 33 S.Ct. 564, 568 , 57 L.Ed. 920 ]. And nothing is better settled than that statutes should be sensibly construed, with a view to effectuating the legislative intent. Lau Ow Bew v. United States, 144 U.S. 47, 59 [ 12 S.Ct. 517, 520 , 36 L.Ed. 340 ]; In re Chapman, 166 U.S. 661, 667 [ 17 S.Ct. 677, 679 , 41 L.Ed. 1154 ]. * * # * * * Although, unlike the act of 1867, the present one contains no express provision permitting proof of contingent claims, it does in substance afford the surety on a liability susceptible of liquidation the same relief possible under the earlier act, i.e., application to the principal debt of all dividends declared out of the estate (act of March 2, 1867, §§ 19, 27, c. 176, 14 Stat. 517 , 525, 529). And as the surety thus either shares or enjoys an opportunity to share in the principal’s estate, we think the discharge of the latter acquits the obligation between them incident to the relationship. Mace v. Wells, 6 How. 272 , 276 [ 12 L.Ed. 698 ]; Fairbanks ”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.