Boone v. Lightner’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

82 federal appellate · 33 district · 399 state decisions

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 674 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “At any stage thereof any action or proceeding in any court in which a person in military service is involved, either as plaintiff or defendant, during the period of such service or within sixty days thereafter may, in the discretion of the court in which it is pending, on its own motion, and shall, on application to it by such person or some person on his behalf, be stayed as provided in this Act [sections 501 to 591 of this Appendix], unless, in the opinion of the court, the ability of plaintiff to prosecute the action or the defendant to conduct his defense is not materially affected by reason of his military service.”

   30 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Comer v. City of Palm Bay · Martin v. Wagner

2. “is always to be liberally construed to protect those who have been obliged to drop their own affairs to take up the burdens of the nation.”

   25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Regan v. Taxation With Representation of Washington · Procopio v. Wilkie

3. “"The Act makes no express provision as to who must carry the burden of showing that a party will or will not be prejudiced, in pursuance no doubt of its policy of making the law flexible to meet the great variety of situations no legislator and no court is wise enough to foresee. We, too, refrain from declaring any rigid doctrine of burden of proof in this matter, believing that courts called upon to use discretion will usually have enough sound sense to know from what direction their information should be expected to come. One case may turn on an issue of fact as to which the party is an important witness, where it only appears that he is in service at a remote place or at a place unknown. The next may involve an accident caused by one of his family using his car with his permission, which he did not witness, and as to which he is fully covered by insurance. Such a nominal defendant's absence in military service in Washington might be urged by the insurance company, the real defendant, as ground for deferring trial until after the war. To say that the mere fact of a party's military service has the same significance on burden of persuasion in the two contexts would be to put into the Act through a burden of proof theory the rigidity and lack of discriminating application which Congress sought to remove by making stays discretionary. We think the ultimate discretion includes a discretion as to whom the court may ask to come forward with facts needful to a fair judgment. " (Em”

   8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Glick Cleaning Laundry Co. v. Wade, Adm. · Cadieux v. Cadieux