Holyoke Water Power Co. v. American Writing Paper Co.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

36 federal appellate · 22 state decisions

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

1. ““By the first term of the alternative, there may be payment of the rent in the form of ‘a quantity of gold which shall be equal in amount to $1500 of the gold coin of the United States of the standard of weight and fineness of the year 1894.’ In this form there is no call for a stated number of ounces of fine gold, as if a goldsmith were providing for the uses of his business. The call is for gold that shall be as heavy and as fine as a stated number of gold dollars, with the result that delivery in such dollars is a payment in strict accordance with the letter of the contract. We must consider the situation of the parties, their business needs and expectations, in gauging their intention. When these are kept in view, the gold is seen to be a standard with which to stabilize the value of the dollar; the dollar not a yardstick with which to measure the quantity of the gold. To read the leases otherwise is to permit the realities vof the transaction, its substance and essential purpose, to be obscured by forms and phrases. Long ago it was said by a distinguished member of •this court, commenting upon a different statute, but one analogous in purpose: ‘If the contract is for the delivery of a chattel or a specific commodity or substance, the law does not apply. If it is bona fide for so many carats of diamonds or so many ounces of gold as bullion, the specific contract must be performed [assuming, of course, that contracts for the delivery of bullion are not prohibited by law]. ”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Franklin Mint Corp. · Emery Bird Thayer Dry Goods Co. v. Williams

2. ““Having thus unmistakably stamped illegality upon both outstanding and future contractual provisions designed to require payment by debtors in a frozen money value rather than in a dollar of legal tender current at date of payment, Congress — apparently to obviate any possible misunderstanding as to the breadth of its objective — added, with studied precision, a catchall second sentence sweeping in ‘every obligation’, existing or future, ‘payable in money of the United States’, irrespective of ‘whether or not any such provision is contained therein or made with respect thereto.’ The obligations hit at by Congress were those ‘payable in money of the United States.’ All such obligations were declared dischargeable ‘upon payment, dollar for dollar, in any coin or currency [of the United States] which at the time of the payment is legal tender for public and private debts.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Aztec Properties, Inc. v. Union Planters National Bank of Memphis

3. “shall be discharged upon payment, dollar for dollar, in any coin or currency which at the time of payment is legal tender for public and private debts.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Southern Capital Corp. v. Southern Pacific Co.