Lyles v. Roach’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 1 district ·

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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It may be stated generally, and with reference to all statutes of limitations, both as to actions arising on contracts and also upon torts, trespasses, etc., that the currency of the statute commences when the cause of action accrues, or, as Judge Evans said in Bugg v. Summer: ‘Whenever there is a plaintiff who can sue, and a defendant who can be sued, the statute begins to run. A right of action has accrued’ Bugg v. Summer, 1 McMul. 333 ; and the limitation in force at the accrual of the right is the limitation which must govern. This theory is sustained in our recent case of Nichols v. Briggs, 18 S. C. 478 , where the limitation of force at the time the note fell due was applied, and not the one when the action was brought. And this was not because the subject-matter rested on contract, but because the accrual of a right of action sets the statute in motion, and this was the case whether the cause of action was assumpsit, trespass, trover,. debt, or whatever else it might be. Respondents’ counsel contends ingeniously that title founded upon adverse possession is nothing but a right or title growing out of a continuous daily trespass submitted to for the statutory period, and if the defendants can show such continuous daily trespass since the act of 1873, submitted to for 10 years by the plaintiff, then they are protected, their trespass having ripened into a right. But it will be observed that the action of the plaintiff is for the recovery of the possession of the land, a”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Cheatham v. Evans