Shifflett v. Baltimore County’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““We cannot say that a legislative body may not in any case after consideration of the factors involved, conclude that the termination of a use after a period of time sufficient to allow a property owner an opportunity to amortize his investment and make other plans is a valid method of solving the problem. “To enunciate a contrary rule would mean that the use of land for such purposes as a tennis court, an open air skating rink, a junkyard or a parking lot — readily transferable to another site — at the date of the enactment of a zoning ordinance vests the owner thereof with the right to utilize the land in that manner in perpetuity, regardless of the changes in the neighborhood over the course of time. In the light of our ever expanding urban communities, such a rule appears to us to constitute an unwarranted restriction upon the Legislature in dealing with what has been described as ‘one of the major problems in effective administration of modern zoning ordinances.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 21 Md. App. 697 - Gough v. Board of Zoning Appeals