Williams v. Cobb’s Empirical Analysis
242 U.S. 307 · 1916
Citation profile
9 federal appellate · 1 district · 18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 34 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 1954 · most notably Forrest v. Jack (1935), Gift v. Love (1932)
9 federal appellate · 1 district · 18 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedWilliams v. Cobb (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Leitch v. . Wells · Appeal of Grim · Lamberton v. Pereles · Upon the Petition of Gay
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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““At common law * * * an, executor has full power, without any special provision of the will that he is administering or order of court, to sell or dispose of the personal assets of the estate, and thereby to pass good title to them. Munteith v. Rahn, 14 Wis. 210 ; In re Gay, 5 Mass. 419 ; Leitch v. Wells, 48 N. Y. 585 ; Perry on Trusts, §§ 225, 809. A sale by an executor, even to himself, is not void, hut only voidable at the option of interested persons. Grim’s Appeal, 105 Pa. St. 375 ; Tate v. Dalton, 41 N. C. 562 . And if, after such purchase from himself, an executor sells to another, the purchaser from him acquires a good title. Cannon v. Jenkins, 16 N. C. 426 .””
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.