Hartley v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1954
Citation profile
63 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 65 later decisions — most recently October 2007 · most notably Aldridge Ex Rel. Aldridge v. Hasty (1954), Farber v. Smolack (1967)
63 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 Hayes v. . Elon College · Wells v. Clayton · Childress v. Johnson Motor Lines, Inc. · Travis v. Duckworth · Yost v. Hall
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 65 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(a) In all actions to recover damages for injury to the person or to property or for the death of a person, arising out of an accident or collision involving a motor vehicle, proof of ownership of such motor vehicle at the time of such accident or collision shall be prima facie evidence that said motor vehicle was being operated and used with the authority, consent, and knowledge of the owner in the very transaction out of which said injury or cause of action arose. (b) Proof of the registration of a motor vehicle in the name of any person, firm, or corporation, shall for the purpose of any such action, be prima facie evidence of ownership and that such motor vehicle was then being operated by and under the control of a person for whose conduct the owner was legally responsible, for the owner’s benefit, and within the course and scope of his employment.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage““[T]his Act was designed and intended to, and does, establish a rule of evidence which facilitates proof of ownership and agency in automobile collision cases where one of the vehicles is operated by a person other than the owner. It was not ‘enacted and designed to render proof unnecessary,’ nor does proof of registration or ownership make out a prima 'facie case for the jury on the issue of negligence. Neither is it sufficient ‘to send the case to the jury,’ or ‘support a finding favorable to plaintiff under that first (negligence) issue,’ or ‘to support a finding against a defendant’ on the issue of negligence. * * * “Non constat the statute, it is still necessary for the party aggrieved to allege both negligence and agency in his pleading and to prove both at the trial.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Branch v. Dempsey“The statute was designed to create a rule of evidence. Its purpose is to establish a ready means of proving agency in any case where it is charged that the negligence of a nonowner operator causes damage to the property or injury to the person of another.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.