Lumber Underwriters v. Rife’s Empirical Analysis
237 U.S. 605 · 1915
Citation profile
151 federal appellate · 4 district · 36 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 220 later decisions (7 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 1972 · most notably Concordia Ins. Co. of Milwaukee v. School Dist. No. 98 of Payne Cty. (1931), American Fire Insurance v. King Lumber & Manufacturing Co. (1919)
151 federal appellate · 4 district · 36 state decisions — followed in 15 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedRife v. Lumber Underwriters (from Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Northern Assurance Company of London v. Grand View Building Association · Insurance Company v. Norton · Grigsby v. Russell · Phænix Life Insurance v. Raddin · Aetna Life Insurance v. Moore
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 220 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““When a policy of insurance is issued, the import of the transaction, as every one understands, is that the document embodies the contract. It is the dominant, as it purports to be the only and entire, expression of' the parties’ intent. * * * No rational theory of contract can be made that does not hold the assured to know the contents of the instrument to which he seeks to hold the other party. * * * Of course, if the insured can prove that he made a different contract from that expressed in the writing, he may have it reformed in equity. What he cannot do is to take a policy without reading it, and then, when he comes to sue at law upon the instrument, ask to have it enforced otherwise than according to its terms.””
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.