Spence v. Griffin’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 4 district · 42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 64 later decisions — most recently May 2016 · most notably 204 W. Va. 95 - Kessel v. Leavitt (1998), Van Deusen v. Snead (1994)
4 federal appellate · 4 district · 42 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 Winn v. Aleda Const. Co., Inc. · Allen Realty Corp. v. Holbert · Hill v. Hill · Packard Norfolk, Inc. v. Miller · Nationwide Insurance v. Patterson
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 64 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[f]or purposes of an action for fraud, concealment, whether accomplished by word or conduct, may be the equivalent of a false representation, because concealment always involves deliberate nondisclosure designed to prevent another from learning the truth. A contracting party’s willful nondisclosure of a material fact that he knows is unknown to the other party may evince an intent to practice actual fraud.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he report of a commissioner in chancery should be sustained unless the trial court concludes that the commissioner’s findings are not supported by the evidence. This rule ... is not applicable to pure conclusions of law contained in the report. On appeal, a decree which approves a commissioner’s report will be affirmed unless plainly wrong, but where the chancellor has disapproved the commissioner’s findings, this Court must review the evidence and ascertain whether, under a correct application of the law, the evidence supports the findings of the commissioner or the conclusions of the trial court.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Firebaugh v. Hanback“One who advances a cause of action for actual fraud bears the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence: (1) a false representation, (2) of a material fact, (3) made inten tionally and knowingly, (4) with intent to mislead, (5) reliance by the party misled, and (6) resulting damage to the party misled.”
1 later decision 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.