Conover v. Newton’s Empirical Analysis
1979
Citation profile
61 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 61 later decisions — most recently April 2025 · most notably Dickens v. Puryear (1981), Food Town Stores, Inc. v. City of Salisbury (1980)
61 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 Tilton v. Richardson · Huntley v. Potter · In re Annexation Ordinance Adopted by the City of New Bern · In Re Annexation Ordinance Adopted by the City of Jacksonville · Chambers v. Cox, Penitentiary Superintendent
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 61 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[o]rdinarily it is error for a court to hear and rule on a motion for summary judgment when discovery procedures, which might lead to the production of evidence relevant to the motion, are still pending and the party seeking discovery has not been dilatory in doing so.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““It is supposed that second thoughts are apt to be sounder, and this conviction has led courts to consider the right of withdrawal favorably, both as a matter of justice to the individual, who is entitled to apply his best judgment to the matter in hand, and as sound policy in community and public affairs, where the establishment of governmental institutions should rest upon mature consideration rather than be mere unnecessary excrescences upon the body politic, raised by the whim and fancy of a few men.” . . . We think both considerations relied upon in Idol, justice to the individual and policies favoring the establishment of governmental institutions only upon mature reflection, are equally applicable to a voluntary annexation petition. The first consideration is applicable by the very nature of the annexation proceeding authorized by statute, i.e., voluntary annexation by the consent of all property owners in the area proposed to be annexed. Because the annexation of an area by a municipality involves substantially more extensive consequences and obligations, application of the second consideration is even more appropriate than it was in Idol in which only the establishment of a single-purpose district was involved.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[T]he statute providing for voluntary annexation requires the signatures of one hundred per cent of the owners of real property in the area proposed to be annexed. One or more unwilling property owners are in a position, thereby, to thwart the aspirations of the majority in a given area who seek voluntary annexation.... [T]he legislature intended voluntary annexation to be accomplished only upon unanimous consent. Absent statutory prohibition on the right to withdraw from a voluntary annexation petition after it has been submitted but final action has not yet been taken on it, we think the considerations articulated in Idol support the right of individual petitioners to reconsider their initial decision and withdraw from the petition at any time before final action thereupon.”
1 later decision 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.