Elmore v. Ingalls’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ ‘ “The natural right of one proprietor to have the stream descend to him in its pure state must yield, in a reasonable degree, to the equal right of the upper proprietors, whose’ fertilization, cultivation, or occupation of their ’own lands, and whose use of the stream for mill and manufacturing purposes, for irrigation and domestic purposes, will tend to make the water more or less impure, especially when the population becomes dense. So it is of public importance that the proprietors of useful manufactories should be held responsible only for appreciable injury caused by their works, and not for slight inconveniences or occasional annoyances, or even some degree of interference with irrigation or agriculture.” We approve the following principle extracted from Sanderson v. (Pennsylvania) Coal Co., 86 Pa. 401 , ( 27 Am.St.Rep. 711 : “The exigencies of the great industrial interests must be kept standing in view; the property of large and useful interests should not be hampered or hindered for frivolous or trifling causes. For slight inconveniences or occasional annoyances, they ought not to be held responsible, and, in dealing with such complaints, juries should be held with a steady hand.” “ ‘It is certainly true that owing to the wants, if not the necessities, of the present age,' — of agriculture, of manufactures, of commerce, of invention and of the arts and sciences, — some changes must be tolerated' in the channels in which water naturally flows, and in its adaptation”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Montgomery Limestone Co. v. Bearden

2. “"`The old maxim, "Aqua curritt, et debet currere ut solebat," is familiar to all. It means, in practical application, that water is the common and equal property of every one through whose domain it flows, and that the right of each to its use and consumption, while passing over his possessions is the same. He must so use it as not to destroy or unreasonably impair the equal rights of others. "Sic utere tuo ut alienum non ledas" ["use your own property in such a manner as not to injure that of another"] is the law's mandate in such conditions....' ". . . . "`In Gould on Waters, it is declared that actions may be maintained for the following causes: "The casting upon one's own land of dirt and foul water, or substances which reach the stream by percolation; ... in letting off of water made noxious by precipitation of minerals,... or rendering the water unfit for domestic, culinary, or mining purposes or for cattle to drink of, or fish to live in, or for manufacturing purposes.'"”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 790 So. 2d 940 - Russell Corp. v. Sullivan

3. “. . . . "`In Gould on Waters, it is declared that actions may be maintained for the following causes: "The casting upon one's own land of dirt and foul water, or substances which reach the stream by percolation; ... in letting off of water made noxious by precipitation of minerals,... or rendering the water unfit for domestic, culinary, or mining purposes or for cattle to drink of, or fish to live in, or for manufacturing purposes.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 790 So. 2d 940 - Russell Corp. v. Sullivan