Lucas v. American Code Co.’s Empirical Analysis
280 U.S. 445 · 1930
Citation profile
607 federal appellate · 72 district · 14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,481 later decisions (70 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2020 · most notably North American Oil Consolidated v. Burnet (1932), Thor Power Tool Company v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (1979)
607 federal appellate · 72 district · 14 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
reviewedAmerican Code Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Anderson · Weiss v. Wiener · Lewellyn v. Electric Reduction Co. · American National Co. v. United States
Cited together with United States v. Anderson · United States v. S S White Dental Mfg Co of Pennsylvania · Dixie Pine Products Co. v. Commissioner · Security Flour Mills Co. v. Commissioner · Reynolds v. Cooper
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 1,481 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“should not be interfered with unless clearly unlawful.”
29 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * a loss occasioned by the taxpayer’s breach of contract is not deductible in the year of the breach, except under the special circumstances where, within the tax year, there is a definite admission of liability, negotiations for settlement are begun, and a reasonable estimate of the amount of the loss is accrued on the books.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The prudent business man often sets up reserves to cover contingent liabilities. But they are not allowable as [tax] deductions.”
4 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.