Flexner v. Farson’s Empirical Analysis
248 U.S. 289 · 1919
Citation profile
17 federal appellate · 31 district · 91 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 210 later decisions (11 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 1990 · most notably Williams v. State of North Carolina (1942), Hess v. Pawloski (1927)
17 federal appellate · 31 district · 91 state decisions — followed in 23 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedFlexner v. Farson
Relationships
Relies on Pennoyer v. Neff · Hurtado v. People of the State of California · Grannis v. Ordean · Davidson v. New Orleans · Hayes v. State of Missouri
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 210 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is argued that the pleas tacitly admit that Washington Flexner was agent of the firm at the time of the transaction sued upon in Kentucky, and the Kentucky statute is construed as purporting to make him agent to receive service in suits arising out of the business done in that state. On this construction it is said that the defendants by doing business in the state consented to be bound by the service prescribed. The analogy of suits against insurance companies based upon such service is invoked. Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association v. Phelps, 190 U. S. 147 , 23 S. Ct. 707 , 47 L. Ed. 987 . But the consent that is said to be implied in such cases is a mere fiction, founded upon the accepted doctrine that the states could exclude foreign corporations altogether, and therefore could establish this obligation as a condition to letting them in. La fayette Ins. Co. v. French, 18 How. 404 , 15 L. Ed. 451 ; Pennsylvania Fire Ins. Co., v. Gold Issue Mining & Milling Co., 243 U. S. 93, 96 , 37 S. Ct. 344 , 61 L. Ed. 610 . The state had no power to exclude the defendants and on that ground without going farther the 'Supreme Court of Illinois rightly held that the analogy failed, and that the Kentucky judgment was. void. If the Kentucky statute purports to have the effect attributed to it, it cannot have that effect in. the present case. New York Life Ins. Co. v. Dunlevy,. 241 U. S. 518, 522, 523 , 36 S. Ct. 613 , 50 L. Ed. 1140 . “Judgment affirmed.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““In actions against an individual residing in another state, or a partnership, association, or joint-stock company, the members of which reside in another -state, engaged in business in this state, the summons may be served on the manager, or agent of, or person in charge of, such business in this state, in the county where the business is carried on, or in the county where the cause of action occurred.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.