Oklahoma Natural Gas Co v. State of Oklahoma Same’s Empirical Analysis
273 U.S. 257 · 1927
Citation profile
107 federal appellate · 36 district · 77 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 367 later decisions (17 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2018 · most notably Chicago Title & Trust Co. v. Forty-One Thirty-Six Wilcox Bldg. Corp. (1937), United States v. Polizzi (1974)
107 federal appellate · 36 district · 77 state decisions — followed in 22 states
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 Albert Shulthis v. D a McDougal · Pendleton v. Russell · National Bank v. Colby · Jacob Mumma v. The Potomac Company
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 367 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““There is no specific provision in our rules for the substitution as a party litigant of á successor to a dissolved corporation. It is well settled that at common law and in the federal jurisdiction a corporation which has been dissolved is as if it did not exist, and the result of the dissolution can not be distinguished from the death of a natural person in its effect. Mumma v. Potomac Company, 8 Pet. 281 , 8 L.Ed. 945 ; National Bank v. Colby, 21 Wall. 609 , 22 L.Ed. 687 ; Pendleton v. Russell, 144 U.S. 640 , 12 S.Ct. 743 , 36 L.Ed. 574 . * * * It follows, therefore, that as the death of the natural person abates all pending litigation to which such a person is a party, dissolution of a corporation at common law, abates all litigation in which the corporation is appearing either as plaintiff or defendant. To allow actions to continue would be to continue the existence of the corporation pro hac vice. But corporations exist for specific purposes, and only by legislative act, so that if the life of the corporation is to continue even only for litigating purposes it is necessary that there should be some statutory authority for the prolongation. The matter is really not procedural or controlled by the rules of the court in which the litigation pends. It concerns the fundamental law of the corporation enacted by the state which brought the corporation into being.” (Emphasis supplied)”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The language of the section would seem to indicate that as there is to be no abatement the Oklahoma Natural Gas Company for litigating purposes is still in being and continues to be a party before this court.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Unless other persons are appointed by the court, the directors or managers of the affairs of such corporation at the time of its dissolution are trustees of the creditors and stockholders or members of the corporation dissolved, and have full power to settle the affairs of the corporation, and to collect and pay debts and divide among the stockholders the property which remains after the payment of debts and necessary expenses; and for such purposes may maintain or de fend actions in their own names by the style of the trustees of such corporation dissolved, naming it; and no action whereto any such corporation is a party shall abate by reason of such dissolution.””
2 later decisions 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.