Ghiradello v. Malina’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 district · 9 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““. . . And, although a privileged driver is entitled to assume that his right of way will be honored by an unprivileged operator, he cannot continue to rely upon the assumption after he discovers, or by the exercise of reasonable care should have discovered, that the unfavored driver does not intend to yield the right of way, and, if after such discovery or failure to exercise reasonable care to make the discovery, the privileged driver continues to pursue his course without exercising reasonable care for the safety of others, he may be held liable notwithstanding his right of way. Thus it can be seen that the decisions recognize the statutory rule, but they do not interpret it as an inflexible or absolute one, and, due to the variety of circumstances that has developed, in actual practice, many times the final determination of the questions of primary and contribu tory negligence has had to be resolved by an application of the well-known test — what would an ordinarily careful and prudent person have done under like circumstances?””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Kelbaugh v. Mills · Baumann v. Canton

2. ““* * * Ordinarily, under the law, the man on the right has the right of way. That does not mean an absolute right. It is a qualified right. It ds qualified in that a man who has the right of way still has to use due care and what I mean by that is when you come to the street intersection, it does not mean that a man who is on the right of another vehicle can deliberately drive into the intersection without looking, that he can drive into it at a high rate of speed, if it is the place where that would be carelessness, or he can drive into it without regard to anybody else’s position in the intersection. It is a qualified right and it means if both parties get there at the same time, the man who is on the right, on the right side has a right to go ahead carefully and the other man must give him the right of way. This rule, the right-of-way rule, does not completely nullify the common law rule, that the driver free of negligence in the operation of his vehicle who reaches the intersection first is entitled to the right of way. The first entry into the intersection may be considered as one of the factors in determining which motorist has the right of way but it alone is not controlling and all elements in the case must be considered by you.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Pettaway v. Washington

3. “The statutory right of way is not an absolute one — the driver holding it is not relieved of his duty of using reasonable care. Accordingly, if the privileged driver continues on his course without the exercise of reasonable care for the safety of others he may be liable notwithstanding his right of way.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Maduro v. Donavan