Harney v. Montgomery’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 1 district · 10 state decisions

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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““An officer acting illegally, as did the defendant Armstrong in this case, should not, generally speaking, at least, be permitted to acquire for himself and his associates, a valuable right through and by virtue of his illegal act.” . . . “Clearly, as between the parties to the original instrument, charged with knowledge of the illegal act of the notary, the mortgage in controversy should be considered as though it were not acknowledged at all; otherwise, the illegal act would indirectly, through the recording of the instrument, put the-power of sale into operation, and thus-confer a right on the mortgagees which, they otherwise would not possess.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Elsey v. Shaw

2. ““That in fact is the universally recognized rule, and it is a prerequisite to a valid exercise of a power, not only that there must be a record of the mortgage or assignment, but also that it should have been entitled to record, otherwise the record, as between the parties, is a nullity, and the foreclosure proceedings, as between them, unauthorized and void.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Elsey v. Shaw