McGraw v. Thomason’s Empirical Analysis
1957
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 35 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 39 later decisions — most recently June 2015 · most notably United States Steel Corp. v. Elton H. Darby, Defendant-Third Party v. Southern Fabricating Company, Inc., Third Party (1975), Johnson Publishing Co. v. Davis (1960)
2 federal appellate · 35 state decisions
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 Marion v. Davis · Penry v. Dozier · 33 Ala. App. 243 - Tidmore v. Mills · Wofford v. Meeks · Ripps v. Herrington
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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"[T]he printed words are to be taken in their natural meaning, and according to the sense in which they appear to have been used and the idea they are adapted to convey to those who read them. A forced construction is not to be put upon them in order to relieve the defendant from liability, nor are they to be subjected to the critical analysis of a trained legal mind, but must be construed and determined by the natural and probable effect on the mind of the average lay reader."”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“'Generally, any false and malicious publication, when expressed in printing or writing, or by signs or pictures, is a libel [if it] . . . charges an offense punishable by indictment or . . . tends to bring an individual into public hatred, contempt or ridicule or charges an act odious and disgraceful in society.'”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage““In the case of Fitzpatrick v. Age-Herald Publishing Co., 184 Ala. 510 , 63 So. 980, 981 , 51 L.R.A.(N.S.) 401, Ann.Cas.1916B, 753, this court had occasion to make some observations as to the office of the innuendo in pleading, and which are here pertinent. In that case it is held that, unless the words published or spoken are fairly susceptible of the meaning attributed to them by the pleader in the innuendo, the actionable quality of the words is not disclosed, for the innuendo is but the deduction of the pleader. It is there said: 'The only office of the innuendo is to explain some matter already expressed, or to serve to point out where there is precedent matter. It may apply what is already expressed, but cannot add to, enlarge, or change the sense of the previous words. If the meaning given to the words by the innuendo is broader than the words would naturally bear, the pleading is bad, for, in law, the innuendo is but the deduction of the pleader from the words used in the publication, and this court has repeatedly held that it is for the court to say whether the meaning charged by the innuendo is supported by the language used in the publication. * * # > »”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Grice v. Holk
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.