Wilbur v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district · 2 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““We derive our law of distress for rent from England. * * * The right is nowhere exactly given by statute, but it comes from the common law, which allowed the landlord without sanction of legal process to issue his own warrant of distress and deliver it to his bailiff, with authority to summarily seize all the goods and chattels, with certain known exceptions, which could be found on the demised premises, whether they belonged to the tenant or a stranger. This great power was defined, protected, and enlarged by certain statutory provisions, and notably by a statute * * * known as the ‘Statute of Ann,’ which, among other things, provided that if the tenant fraudulently removed his goods from the premises to escape distress the landlord, within five days, might follow and seize them under his warrant, ‘provided that nothing within this act contained shall extend or be construed to extend to empower such lessor or landlord to take or seize any goods or chattels as a distress for arrears of rent, which shall be sold bona fide, and for a valuable consideration before such seizure made.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Bishop

2. “* * * And no property shall be seized under a distress warrant for such except such as belongs to the tenant in his own right.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. General Motors Acceptance Corp. v. Hanahan