Dobson v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1952
Citation profile
How this case has been cited
Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently October 1986
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 F. W. Woolworth Co. v. United States
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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * It is not disputed that the operators or drivers of the vehicles here represented in the imported items are figures or images of animate objects and, by themselves, they would probably be dutiable as such under the reduced rate. However, the classification of these figures as separate articles is not here in question. The figure of the animate object in each article is not segregable from the rest of the item, but each is a component part of the toy article under consideration. Further, the portion of each article representing the inanimate object constitutes a substantial part of the item in question. One portion of the article contributes as much to the completed article as the other. We hold, therefore, that the imported items, each an entity in itself, are something more than “figures or images of animate objects.’ Accordingly, they are not dutiable at the modified rate under paragraph 1513 of the tariff act, as claimed.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“* * * It would appear from the authorities above cited that an “animate” object is one representing animals or people, that is, possessing animal life, and that inanimate objects are those which are not endowed with animal life, such as benches, trees, fences, etc. We take it, therefore, that the figures in the imported articles representing various men, such as the drivers, operators, or policemen, are figures or images of animate objects and that the remaining portions of these items (the vehicles which are parts of the complete articles) are images of inanimate objects. * * *”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“animate, * * . Possessing animal life; living; as, the animate creation. 2. Possessing animation; lively. * * *”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.