Smith v. Lewis’s Empirical Analysis
1856
Citation profile
1 district · 23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently December 1994 · most notably Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Co. v. Richards (1894), Alderson v. Houston (1908)
1 district · 23 state decisions — followed in 12 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.
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““But it is justly said that ihe proof must show that the plaintiff was ‘ready and willing’ to perform; .and, the disposition and ability being proved, the only remaining objection relates to the degree of preparation. The plaintiff had not his money in his formal possession. He had not cleared his own estate from incumbrances, and had not prepared the title deeds of his property. All these preparations he had suspended in view of his arrangement to meet the defendant, at which he expected some facilities to be furnished by the defendant, not necessary, but convenient to himself; but all of which preparations he was able to complete, and would have completed, if the defendant had not, hy liis absence, under the .peculiar circumstances of the case, induced him to desist.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Gray v. Smith
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.