Mathis v. Hannan’s Empirical Analysis
1957
Citation profile
11 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently May 1980
11 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 Selligman v. Von Allmen Bros., Inc. · Polk v. Axton · Sinclair Refining Co. v. City of Chicago · Byrn v. Beechwood Village · Shemwell v. Speck
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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The author points out that spot zoning amendments sabotage the laudable efforts of progressive municipal authorities to zone comprehensively the entire municipality. Yokley, by the use of the words,, “small lot or parcel of ground,” seems to limit the application of the spot zoning doctrine to small areas and we think it is a familiar association because most of us associate the word, “spot” with a small area in comparison with a large one, hut the largeness and smallness are relative-, and proper use may he determined only hy comparison. The spot that Lady Macbeth attempted to exorcise (“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!”) was probably imaginary and did not exist at all except in her imagination, while sunspots, our dictionary says, may vary “from mere apparent points (probably 1,000 miles across) to spaces of 100,000 miles in extent.” So we believe that each case must be determined in accordance with its circumstances. We cannot arbitrarily say that a 50 foot lot is small and a 13 or 14 acre tract is not small. Each must be related to its surroundings.”
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.