Miller v. Lucas’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

24 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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““However, the general rule stated in the Childress case above quoted is not of universal application. ‘Whether the past existence of a condition or state of facts may be inferred Or presumed from proof of the existence of a present condition or state of facts, or proof of the existence of a condition or state of facts at a given time, depends largely on the facts and circumstances of the individual case, and on the likelihood of intervening circumstances as the true origin of the present existence or the existence at a given time. Accordingly, in some circumstances, an inference as to the past existence of a condition or state of facts may be proper, as, for example, where the present condition or state of facts is one that would not ordinarily exist unless it had also existed at the time as to which the presumption is invoked.’ 31A, C.J.S., Evidence, § 140, pp. 306-07.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 9 N.C. App. 298 - May Ex Rel. May v. Mitchell · Jenkins v. Hawthorne

2. ““ ‘Whether the existence of a particular state of affairs at one time is admissible as evidence of the same state of affairs at another time, depends altogether upon the nature of the subject matter, the length of time intervening, and the extent of the showing, if any, on the question of whether or not the condition had changed in the meantime. The question is one of the materiality or remoteness of the evidence in the particular case, and the matter rests largely in the discretion of the trial court. . . . There has been some reference in recent cases to a “general rule” that inferences “do not ordinarily run backward”; but so much depends upon circumstances that it seems a mistake to think in terms of a “rule” with respect to this or any other of the many factors that must be considered.’ ””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 9 N.C. App. 298 - May Ex Rel. May v. Mitchell · Jenkins v. Hawthorne

3. ““Lucas, administrator, assigns as error the judge’s instruction to the jury on the first issue, to wit, was plaintiff injured and her automobile damaged by the negligence of defendant’s intestate V. W. Doss, as alleged in the complaint. On this issue the judge charged to this effect: If the jury is satisfied by the greater weight of the evidence that Doss in the operation of his automobile with the trailer attached was negligent, as the court has defined negligence for you, that is if he was operating his automobile in a manner other than the manner in which a reasonable and prudent man would have driven it under similar conditions, or if you are satisfied that his driving was a violation of the reckless driving statute, which the court will now read to you, that will be negligence, and if you are satisfied by the evidence that the negligence of this defendant or his violation of either section of the reckless driving statute proximately caused or was a proximate cause of the collision, it would be your duty to answer the first issue, Yes; if you are not so satisfied you would answer it, No. Nowhere in the charge did the judge instruct the jury what facts it was necessary for them to find to constitute negligence on Doss’s part. This charge left the jury unaided to apply the law to the facts relating to the first issue as shown by plaintiff’s evidence and by Doss’s administrator’s evidence. [Emphasis added.] “The provisions of G.S. 1-180 require that the trial judge in his ch”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Redding v. F. W. Woolworth Co.