Burnet v. Guggenheim’s Empirical Analysis
288 U.S. 280 · 1933
Citation profile
241 federal appellate · 15 district · 40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 646 later decisions (76 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2020 · most notably International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States (1977), Helvering v. Horst (1940)
241 federal appellate · 15 district · 40 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
reviewedGuggenheim v. Commissioner (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Sorrells v. United States · Burnet v. Harmel · Corliss v. Bowers · Gould v. Gould · Palmer v. Bender
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 646 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the question, which choice is it the more likely that Congress would have made?”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““§ 86.3. Cessation of donor’s dominion and control. * * * “As to any property, or part thereof or interest therein, of which the donor has so parted with dominion and control as to leave in him no power to change the disposition thereof, whether for his own benefit or for the benefit of another, the gift is complete. But if upon a transfer of property (whether in trust or otherwise) the donor reserves any power over the disposition thereof, the gift may be wholly incomplete, or may be partially incomplete, depending upon all the facts in the particular case. Accordingly, in every case of a transfer of property subject to a reserved power, the terms of the power must be examined and its scope determined. “A gift is incomplete in every instance where a donor reserves the power to revest the beneficial title to the property in himself. A gift is also incomplete where and to the extent that a reserved power gives the donor the right to name new beneficiaries or to change the interests of the beneficiaries as between themselves. * * * “A donor shall be considered as himself having the power where it is exercisable by him in conjunction with any person not having a substantial adverse interest in the disposition of the transferred property or the income therefrom. A trustee, as such, is not a person having an adverse interest in the disposition of the trust property or its income. “The relinquishment or termination of a power to change the disposition of the transferred property, o”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a gift is not consummate until put beyond recall”
6 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.