Vernon v. Crist’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
88 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 88 later decisions — most recently October 2020 · most notably 70 N.C. App. 627 - Estrada v. Jaques (1984), Yancey v. Lea (2001)
88 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.
Relationships
Relies on Sutton v. Duke · Traylor v. Black, Sivalls & Bryson, Inc. · Roberts v. William N. & Kate B. Reynolds Mem. Park · Exum v. Boyles · Wagoner v. North Carolina Railroad
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 88 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The last clear chance or discovered peril doctrine applies “if and when it is made to appear that the defendant discovered, or by the exercise of reasonable care should have discovered, the perilous position of the party injured or killed and could have avoided the injury, but failed to do so.” In this jurisdiction last clear chance is “but an application of the doctrine of proximate cause.” If defendant had the last clear chance to avoid injury to the plaintiff and failed to exercise it, then his negligence, and not the contributory negligence of the plaintiff, is the proximate cause of the injury.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“[T]o bring into play the doctrine of the last clear chance, there must be proof that after the plaintiff had, by his own negligence, gotten into a position of helpless peril (or into a position of peril to which he was inadvertent), the defendant discovered the plaintiff’s helpless peril (or inadvertence), or, being under a duty to do so, should have, and, thereafter, the defendant, having the means and the time to avoid the injury, negligently failed to do so. The only negligence of the defendant may have occurred after he discovered the perilous position of the plaintiff. Such “original negligence” of the defendant is sufficient to bring the doctrine of the last clear chance into play if the other elements of that doctrine are proved.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“For the doctrine to apply it must appear `that after the plaintiff had, by his own negligence, gotten into a position of helpless peril (or into a position of peril to which he was inadvertent), the defendant discovered the plaintiff's helpless peril (or inadvertence), or, being under a duty to do so, should have, and, thereafter, the defendant, having the means and the time to avoid the injury, negligently failed to do so.' [Exum v. Boyles, supra at 576 , 158 S.E.2d at 853 ].”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.