William Watts v. William Waddle’s Empirical Analysis
31 U.S. 389 · 1832
Citation profile
14 federal appellate · 4 district · 14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 60 later decisions (10 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2018 · most notably Baker Thomas v. General Motors Corporation (1998), Sarah Fall v. Elizabeth Eastin (1909)
14 federal appellate · 4 district · 14 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 Massie v. Watts · Blight's v. Rochester · Hepburn Dundas' Heirs and Executors v. Dunlop Company · Brashier v. Gratz
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 60 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“. “But, the most decisive objection to the decree against Powell’s heirs is, it is .contended, that it does not vest the legal title in Watts. A decree cannot opérate, beyond the state in which the jurisdiction is exercised. It is not in the'power of one state to prescribe the mode by which real property shall be cohveyed in another. This principle is tooelear to admit of doubt; but it is insisted' that the decree executed by the commissioner under the decree, by virtue of a statute of Kentucky, was a legal conveyance in that state, and as such, by a statutory provision, is good in Ohio. The words of the statute referred, ‡0 are ‘that all deeds, mortgages, and other instruments of writing for the conveyance of lands, tenements and hereditaments, situate, lying and being within this state, which, hereafter may be made and executed, and aeknowl- edged or approved in any oilier slate, territory or country, agreeably to the laws of such state, territory or country, or agreeably to the laws of this state, such deed, mortgage, or other instrument of writing shall be valid in law.’ The deed executed by the commissioner in this case must be considered as forming a part of the proceedings in the court of chancery, and no greater effect can be given to it than if the decree itself, by statute, was made to operate as a conveyance in Kentucky, as It does in Ohio. The question then arises whether, by a fair construction of the above provision, it is in the power of a court of equity, sitt”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“a new ground of relief has been assumed in the argument here that was not made in the Circuit Court, which is, that although this court should be of the opinion that a specific execution of the contract ought not to be decreed, still the complainants are entitled to a decree for the rents and profits of the land, while it was in the possession of the defendants. . . . There is no rule of court or principle of law, which prevents the complainants from assuming a ground in this court, which was not suggested in the court below; but such a course may be productive of much inconvenience and of some expense.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“[A]ny relief may be given for which the basis is laid in the [complaint].”
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.