Gettys v. Newburger’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 federal appellate · 7 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The vice which renders contracts of purchase or sale of cotton, grain, or other personal property to be delivered in the future, which are valid on their faces, wagering contracts and illegal, is the intention of both parties, when they are made, that they shall be settled and the obligations under them discharged by the payment of the differences between the contract and the market prices of the property at the respective times fixed in the contracts for their delivery. There are lawful methods, to wit: By set-off and ringing off, and the payment of the differences, of closing out such contracts and discharging the liabilities of the parties thereunder before the times for deliveries of the property fixed therein arrive, so that no liability to deliver or receive or pay will exist at the fixed times for delivery. Whore such contracts are closed out before such times of delivery, the legal presumption is, in the absence of substantial evidence to the contrary, that at the time the parties made the contracts they intended to close them out by these legal methods, and not by the illegal method of paying the difference between the contract prices and the market prices at the times of delivery, so that there would be no liability to deliver and no delivery of the property at such times for deliveries, arid this intention is a lawful inception which does not detract from the good faith of the parties or the validity of the contracts.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Lyons Milling Co. v. Goffe & Carkener, Inc.

2. “. “As a general rule, contracts for the purchase or sale of cotton, grain, or other personal property on the great public exchanges of the country, to bei delivered in the future in accordance with the by-laws, rules, and settled usages of such exchanges, or in private between man and man, are lawful and valid, and the burden is on one who assails them to establish their invalidity by proof sufficient to overcome the legal presumption of validity. “That the parties to a contract of sale for future delivery intend to close out the contract and settle their obligations, without delivering or paying, for the commodity by sales, direct set-offs, or by ringing off before the time of delivery specified arrives, does not make or tend to prove the contract a wagering contract, as such methods of closing out such contracts are not illegal. “Where contracts of sale for future delivery are closed out before the specified times for delivery, the legal presumption is, in the absence of substantial evidence to the contrary, that when the parties made the contracts they intended to close them out by the legal methods of sales, direct set-offs, or ringing off before time of delivery, and not by the illegal method of paying the difference between the contract price and the market price at the times of delivery.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Solomon v. Newburger