Morrissey v. Powell’s Empirical Analysis
1939
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 33 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 48 later decisions — most recently November 2016 · most notably Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Niziolek (1985), Bauman v. Royal Indemnity Co. (1961)
6 federal appellate · 33 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 Kercheval v. United States · State v. Carta · Der Minasian v. Aetna Life Insurance · Commonwealth v. Crapo · People v. Steinmetz
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 48 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In Morrissey v. Powell, 304 Mass. 268, 269 , 23 N.E.2d 411 (1939), this court stated: “A plea of ‘guilty” is an admission of the material facts alleged in the complaint or indictment ... and in so far as it amounts to an admission of facts material in the trial of a civil case in which the person so pleading is a party, it is admissible as evidence against him. Dzura v. Phillips, 275 Mass. 283, 289, 290 [ 175 N.E. 629 (1931) ]. See Blackman v. Coffin, 300 Mass. 432, 437 [ 15 N.E.2d 469 (1938) ]. But such a plea, even when followed by a conviction, is not necessarily conclusive as to the facts admitted, and the record of a conviction based upon a plea of guilty is received ‘not as a judicial act, having the force and effect of a judgment, but as a solemn confession of the very matter charged in the civil action.’ Mead v. Boston, 3 Cush. 404 , 407 [1849]. The plea may be explained and reasons shown for entering it. Buxton v. Somerset Potters’ Works, 121 Mass. 446 [,448 (1877) ]. Minasian v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 295 Mass. 1, 3 [ 3 N.E.2d 17 (1936)], and cases cited.” Aetna urges us to reconsider that position and to give a- conviction following a guilty plea preclusive, as compared with evidentiary, effect in subsequent civil litigation. We decide to adhere to the position set out in Morrissey v. Powell, supra. We note that courts in at least thirty-nine other States join us in taking the position that a plea of guilty is admissible in evidence as an admission in subsequent civi”
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.