Keystone Driller Co. v. General Excavator Co.’s Empirical Analysis
290 U.S. 240 · 1933
Citation profile
258 federal appellate · 220 district · 116 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,217 later decisions (35 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Precision Instrument Mfg Co v. Automotive Maintenance Machinery Co (1945), Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food MacHinery & Chemical Corp. (1965)
258 federal appellate · 220 district · 116 state decisions — followed in 22 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
reviewedGeneral Excavator Co. v. Keystone Driller Co. (from Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Leeds Catlin Company v. Victor Talking Machine Company · Deweese v. Reinhard · Richard Bein and Mary His Wife v. Mary Heath · Clarke v. White
Cited together with Precision Instrument Mfg Co v. Automotive Maintenance Machinery Co · Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. v. Hartford-Empire Co. · Morton Salt Co. v. G. S. Suppiger Co. · Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food MacHinery & Chemical Corp. · Loughran v. Loughran
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 1,217 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“not bound by formula or restrained by any limitation that tends to trammel the free and just exercise of discretion.”
62 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“he who comes into equity must come with clean hands.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“important, if not essential, parts of the same machine.”
2 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.