Helvering v. Elbe Oil Land Development Co.’s Empirical Analysis
303 U.S. 372 · 1938
Citation profile
148 federal appellate · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 280 later decisions (19 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2022 · most notably Commissioner v. Southwest Exploration Co. (1956), Anderson v. Helvering (1940)
148 federal appellate · 6 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
reviewedElbe Oil Land Development Co. v. Commissioner (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Burnet v. Harmel · Palmer v. Bender · Thomas v. Perkins · Murphy Oil Co. v. Burnet · Helvering v. Bankline Oil Co.
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 280 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * The aggregate sum of $2,000,-000 was paid as an agreed purchase price to which was to be added the one-third of the net profits payable on the conditions specified. We are unable to conclude that the provision for this additional payment qualified in any way the effect of the transaction as an absolute sale or was other than a personal covenant of the * * * [grantee], * * *. [ 303 U.S. at 375 , 58 S.Ct. at 622 .]”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Art. 23 (a)-l. Business expenses.— Business expenses deductible from gross ineóme include the ordinary and necessary expenditures directly connected with or pertaining to the taxpayer’s trade or business, except the classes of items which are deductible under the provisions of articles 23(b)-1 to 23(q)-l. Double deductions are not permitted. Amounts deducted under one provision of the Act can not again be deducted under any other provision of the Act. * * * Among the items included in business expenses are * * * rental for the use of business property. * * * “Art. 23 (m)-l. Depletion of mines, oil’ and gas wells, other natural deposits, and timber; depreciation of improvements.— * * * “(g) ‘Gross income from the property’ as used in section 114 (b) (3) and (4) and articles 23 (m)-l to 23 (m)-28, inclusive, means the amount for which the taxpayer sells (a) the crude mineral product of the property or (b) the product derived therefrom * * *. * * * * * “In all cases there shall be excluded in determining the ‘gross income from the property’ an amount equal to any rents or royalties which were paid or incurred by the taxpayer in respect of the property and are not otherwise excluded from the ‘gross income from the property.’ If royalties in the form of bonus payments or advanced royalties (see Article 23 (m)-10) have been paid in respect of the property in the taxable year or in prior years, the amount excluded from ‘gross income from the property’ for the taxable year on accoun”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“* * * “The words ‘gross income from the property,’ as used in the statute governing the allowance for depletion, mean gross income received from the operation of the oil and gas wells by one who has a capital investment therein, — not income from the sale of the oil and gas properties themselves.””
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.