Burnet v. Harmel’s Empirical Analysis
287 U.S. 103 · 1932
Citation profile
906 federal appellate · 52 district · 51 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,933 later decisions (143 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2022 · most notably Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Estate J Bosch Second National Bank of New Haven (1967), Shamrock Oil & Gas Corp. v. Sheets (1941)
906 federal appellate · 52 district · 51 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedHarmel v. Commissioner (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Eisner v. Macomber · Crooks v. Harrelson · Old Colony Co v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue · Poe v. Seaborn
Cited together with Palmer v. Bender · Corn Products Refining Company v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue · Anderson v. Helvering · Lyeth v. Hoey · Morgan v. Commissioner
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 1,933 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“State law may control only when the federal taxing act, by express language or necessary implication, makes its own operation dependent upon state law.”
24 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Heiner v. Mellon · Lyeth v. Hoey“The state law creates legal interests, but the federal statute determines when and how they shall be taxed.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“* * * [T]he statute speaks of a `sale,' and these leases would not generally be described as a `sale' of the mineral content of the soil, using the term either in its technical sense or as it is commonly understood. Nor would the payments made by lessee to lessor generally be denominated the purchase price of the oil and gas. By virtue of the lease, the lessee acquires the privilege of exploiting the land for the production of oil and gas for a prescribed period; he may explore, drill, and produce oil and gas if found. Such operations with respect to a mine have been said to resemble a manufacturing business carried on by the use of the soil, to which the passing of title of the minerals is but an incident, rather than a sale of the land or of any interest in it or its mineral content. Stratton's Independence v. Howbert, 231 U.S. 399 , 414, 415 [34 S.Ct. 136, 58 L. Ed. 285]; see Von Baumbach v. Sargent Land Co., 242 U.S. 503 , 521 [37 S.Ct. 201, 61 L.Ed. 460].”
9 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.