Merchants' Loan & Trust Co. v. Smietanka’s Empirical Analysis
255 U.S. 509 · 1921
Citation profile
145 federal appellate · 35 district · 40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 472 later decisions (69 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2024 · most notably Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Culbertson (1949), Burnet v. Harmel (1932)
145 federal appellate · 35 district · 40 state decisions — followed in 14 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.
Relationships
Relies on Eisner v. Macomber · Towne v. Eisner · Maryland Casualty Co. v. United States · Doyle v. Mitchell Bros. · Southern Pac Co v. Lowe
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 472 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The word (income) must be given the same meaning in all of the Income Tax Acts of Congress that was given to it in the Corporation Excise Tax Act of 1909.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““§ 22. Gross income. “(a) General definition. ‘Gross income’ includes gains, profits, and income derived from salaries, wages, or compensation for personal service, of whatever kind and in whatever form paid, or from professions, vocations, trades, businesses, commerce, or sales, or dealings in property, whether real or personal, growing out of the ownership or use of or interest in such property; also from interest, rent, dividends, securities, or the transaction of any business carried on for gain or profit, or gains or profits and income derived from any source whatever.””
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Irwin v. Gavit · Lucas v. Alexander““(a) That the basis for ascertaining the gain derived or loss sustained from a sale or other disposition of property, real, personal, or mixed, acquired after February 28, 1913, shall be the cost of such property; except that— ****•»• “(2) In the ease of such property, acquired by gift after December 31, 1920, the basis shall be the same as that which it would have in the hands of the donor or the last preceding owner by whom it was not acquired by gift. If the facts necessary to determine such basis are unknown to the donee, the Commissioner shall, if possible, obtain such facts from such donor or last preceding owner, or any other person cognizant thereof. If the Commissioner finds it impossible to obtain such facts, the basis shall be the value of such property as found by the Commissioner as of the date or approximate date at which, according to the best information the Commissioner is able to obtain, such .property was acquired by such donor or last preceding owner.””
2 later decisions 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.