Arvin v. McClintock’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 federal appellate · 20 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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[a] railroad crossing is itself a notice of danger, and all persons approaching it are bound to exercise care and prudence, and when the conditions are such that a diligent use of the senses would have avoided the injury, a failure to use them constitutes contributory negligence and will be so declared by the Court. ‘In attempting to cross, the traveler must listen for signals, notice signs put up as warnings, and look attentively up and down the track, and a failure to do so is contributory negligence which will bar recovery. A multitude of decisions of all the courts enforce this reasonable rule.’ There are, of course, exceptions to this, as well as most other rules, but when the traveler can see and won’t see he must bear the consequences of his own folly. His negligence under such conditions bars recovery because it is the proximate cause of his injury. He has the last opportunity to avoid injury and fails to take advantage of it.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 230 N.C. App. 504 - Frazier v. Carolina Coastal Railway, Inc.

2. ““In approaching a grade crossing, both the trainmen and travelers upon the highway are under reciprocal duty to keep a proper lookout and exercise that degree of care which a reasonably prudent person would exercise under the circumstances to avoid an accident at the crossing. “A railroad company is under duty to give travelers timely warning of the approach of its train to a public crossing, but its failure to do so does not relieve a traveler of his duty to exercise due care for his own safety, and the failure of a traveler to exercise such care bars recovery when such failure is a proximate cause of the injury.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Price v. Seaboard Air Line Railroad Co.

3. ““It does not suffice to say that plaintiff stopped, looked, and listened. His looking and listening must be timely, McCrimmon v. Powell, supra, so that his precaution will be effective. Godwin v. R. R., supra. It was his duty to ‘look attentively, up and down the track,’ in time to save himself, if opportunity to do so was available to him.” Parker v. R. R., 232 N.C. 472 , 61 S.E. 2d 370 (1950) ; see also Arvin v. McClintock, 253 N.C. 679 , 118 S.E. 2d 129 (1961), and cases cited therein.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Leggett v. Seaboard Air Line Railroad