Smith v. McCullough’s Empirical Analysis
270 U.S. 456 · 1926
Citation profile
90 federal appellate · 42 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 276 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2017 · most notably Brooklyn Sav Bank v. O'Neil Dize (1945), Battaglia v. General Motors Corp. (1948)
90 federal appellate · 42 district · 3 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedMcCullough v. Smith (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Albert Shulthis v. D a McDougal · Hamilton-Brown Shoe Company v. Wolf Brothers & Company · Norton v. Larney · Shoshone Mining Co. v. Rutter · United States v. Noble
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 276 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A plaintiff suing in a federal court must show in his pleading, affirmatively and distinctly, the existence of whatever is essential to federal jurisdiction, and, if he does not do so, the court, on having the defect called to its attention or on discovering the same, must dismiss the case, unless the defect be corrected by amendment.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The first question on the merits is, whether the aet of 1906 and the conveyance made to Kellett with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior took the land entirely out of the prior restrictions on its alienation, so that when that conveyance had served its purpose and the reconveyance to the allottee was made he was free to. lease the land, and even to sell it, as he saw fit. The plaintiffs contend that the answer should be in the affirmative. Both courts below held the other way, and we think they were right. The act of 1906 did not accord to the allot-tee an unqualified right of alienation, but a right which was to be exercised only under the supervision and with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior. Nor was the conveyance to Kellett an absolute alienation. In terms and effect it was a conditional conveyance, called a mortgage, and the contingency which might have converted it into an absolute alienation never happened. The Secretary’s approval was of that particular conveyance and of course was measured by its terms and purpose. When the condition on which the conveyance was to be null and void was performed and the reconveyance was' made the situation was essentially the same as if there had been no conveyance. In substance a lien had been created with the Secretary’s approval and then extinguished, thus leaving the land subject to the restrictions.””
1 later decision 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.