Blair v. Commissioner’s Empirical Analysis
300 U.S. 5 · 1937
Citation profile
687 federal appellate · 78 district · 71 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,566 later decisions (82 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2020 · most notably Commissioner v. Sunnen (1948), Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Estate J Bosch Second National Bank of New Haven (1967)
687 federal appellate · 78 district · 71 state decisions — followed in 17 states
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 of Internal Revenue v. Blair (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Lucas v. Earl · Old Colony Trust Co. v. Commissioner · Corliss v. Bowers · Poe v. Seaborn
Cited together with Helvering v. Horst · Lucas v. Earl · Freuler v. Helvering · Helvering v. Clifford · Helvering v. Eubank
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 1,566 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The beneficiary here had an interest in and to the property that was more than a bare right and much more than a chose in action. * * * His estate in the property thus in the possession of the Trustee, for his benefit, though defeasible, was alienable to the same extent as though in his own possession and passed by deed. [Citing cases.] The instrument by virtue of which that alienation was evidenced,-—whether called a deed, a bill of sale, or an assignment,—was not a chose in action payable to the assignee, but an evidence of the as-signee’s right, title, and estate in and to property.””
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“reviewed the decisions of the Supreme Court of the state and [had] reached a deliberate conclusion.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]here is here no question ... of the taxpayer's retention of control [in producing the income in question].”
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.