Boyd v. Harper’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

32 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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"`Negligence is not presumed from the mere fact that plaintiffs' intestate was killed in the collision.' Williamson v. Randall, 248 N.C. 20, 25 , 102 S.E.2d 381, 386 ; Robbins v. Crawford, 246 N. C. 622, 628 , 99 S.E.2d 852 . However, direct evidence of negligence is not required, but the same may be inferred from facts and attendant circumstances. Etheridge v. Etheridge, 222 N.C. 616, 618 , 24 S.E.2d 477 . But in a case such as this, the plaintiff must establish attendant facts and circumstances which reasonably warrant the inference that the death of his intestate was proximately caused by the actionable negligence of the defendants. Robbins v. Crawford, supra; Whitson v. Frances, 240 N.C. 733, 737 , 83 S.E.2d 879 ; Sowers v. Marley, 235 N.C. 607 , 70 S.E.2d 670 . In Parker v. Wilson, 247 N.C. 47, 53 , 100 S.E.2d 258, 262 , Parker, J., speaking for the Court, said: `Such inference cannot rest on conjecture or surmise. Sowers v. Marley, supra. "The inferences contemplated by this rule are logical inferences reasonably sustained by the evidence, when considered in the light most favorable to the plaintiff." Whitson v. Frances, supra. "A cause of action must be something more than a guess." Lane v. Bryan, 246 N.C. 108 , 97 S.E.2d 411, 414 . A resort to a choice of possibilities is guesswork not decision. Hanrahan v. Walgreen Co., 243 N.C. 268 , 90 S.E.2d 392 . To carry his case to the jury the plaintiff must offer evidence sufficient to take the case out of the realm of conjec”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Lyle ex rel. Lyle v. Thurman · Kinlaw v. Willetts