Freuler v. Helvering’s Empirical Analysis
291 U.S. 35 · 1934
Citation profile
348 federal appellate · 30 district · 17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 850 later decisions (35 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2004 · most notably Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Estate J Bosch Second National Bank of New Haven (1967), Morgan v. Commissioner (1940)
348 federal appellate · 30 district · 17 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedCommissioner v. Freuler (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Burnet v. Harmel · North American Oil Consolidated v. Burnet · Whitcomb v. Blair · Whitcomb 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 850 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“collusive in the sense that all the parties joined in a submission of the issues and sought a decision which would adversely affect the Government's right to additional * * * tax.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he beneficiary’s share of the income is considered his property from the moment of its receipt by the estate____ For the purpose of imposing the tax, the Act regards ownership, the right of property in the beneficiary, as equivalent to physical possession. The test of taxability to the beneficiary is not receipt of income, but the present right to receive it.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * the tax shall not be paid by the fiduciary, but there shall be included in computing the net income of each beneficiary that part of the income of the estate or trust for its taxable year which,- pursuant to the instrument or order governing the distribution, is distributable to such beneficiary, whether distributed or not :Je s¡; )>”
3 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.