McFeely v. Commissioner’s Empirical Analysis
296 U.S. 102 · 1935
Citation profile
110 federal appellate · 6 district · 27 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 275 later decisions (25 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2012 · most notably Helvering v. Gowran (1937), Higgins v. Commissioner (1941)
110 federal appellate · 6 district · 27 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Third Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Crooks v. Harrelson · Brewster v. Gage · Helvering v. New York Trust Co. · Helvering v. Bliss · Helvering v. Twin Bell Oil Syndicate
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 275 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In common understanding, to hold property is to own it. In order to own or hold one must acquire. The date of acquisition is, then, that from which to compute the duration of ownership or the length of holding.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““* * * if the property was acquired either, by will or by intestacy, the basis shall be the fair market value of the property at the time of the distribution to the taxpayer.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In determining the period for which the taxpayer has held property however acquired there shall be included the period for which such property was held by any other person, if under the provisions of section 113, such property has, for the purpose of determining gain or loss from a sale or exchange, the same basis in whole or in part in his hands as it would have in the hands of such other person.”
1 later decision 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.