Colvin v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1945
Citation profile
53 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 53 later decisions — most recently October 1997 · most notably Parsons v. State (1948), Seibold v. State (1970)
53 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 Brandon v. Progress Distilling Co. · People v. . Grutz · Decatur Car Wheel & Manufacturing Co. v. Mehaffey · First Nat. Bank v. Fire Ass'n · Morris v. State
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 53 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"If [the expert's] ... testimony constituted an opinion on a matter of common knowledge, then it was inadmissible. Decatur Car Wheel & Manufacturing Co. v. Mehaffey, Adm'x, 128 Ala. 242 , 29 So. 646 [(1901)]. On the other hand, if the subject involved a field appropriate for expert testimony, then the testimony was admissible even though it was in practical affirmation of a material issue in the case. Watson v. Hardaway-Covington Cotton Co., 223 Ala. 443 , 137 So. 33 [(1931)]."”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“(T)he witness could not testify that the fire was of incendiary origin, which was the same as saying that the inflammables were intentionally used. This was the ultimate fact in the case. This would not be the subject of expert testimony."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“"The physical facts . . . are so simple that they can be readily understood when properly described, and it is then for the jury to draw the appropriate conclusion." Colvin v. State , 247 Ala. at 56 , 22 So.2d at 549.”
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.