Chicago Co v. Wells-Dickey Trust Co’s Empirical Analysis
275 U.S. 161 · 1927
Citation profile
74 federal appellate · 6 district · 39 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 168 later decisions (18 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2009 · most notably Gillespie v. United States Steel Corp. (1964), Murphy v. Houma Well Service (1969)
74 federal appellate · 6 district · 39 state decisions — followed in 13 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 Michigan Central Railroad v. Vreeland · St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Craft · Reading Co. v. Koons · Jaybird Mining Co. v. Weir
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 168 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“‘ ‘ The language of § 1 makes it clear that she is not. The cause of action as there expressed accrues to the widow and children, if either survives. It accrues to the parents if neither widow nor child survives. It accrues to the next of kin dependent upon the employe, only if there is no surviving widow, child or parent. There are, thus, three classes of possible beneficiaries. But the liability is in the alternative. It is to one of the three; not to the several classes collectively. * * * “The cause of action accrues at the death [citing authority]. When it accrues, there is an immediate, final and absolute vesting; and the vesting is in that one of the several possible beneficiaries who, according to the express provision in the statute, is declared entitled to be compensated.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“there is an immediate, final and absolute vesting; and the vesting is in that one of the several possible beneficiaries who, according to the express provisions in the statute, is declared entitled to be compensated.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Every common carrier by railroad ... shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such carrier in such commerce, or, in case of the death of such employee, to his or her personal representative, for the benefit of the surviving widow or husband and children of such employee; and, if none, then of such employee’s parents; and, if none, then of the next of kin dependent upon such employee.”
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.