De Castro v. Board of Commissioners’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

215 federal appellate · 14 district · 7 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 290 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Nor does it follow that the deference due, on appeals from the local tribunals, to their understanding of matters of local concern will lead to the establishment of a local law differing from that developed in decisions in appeals from the federal district courts sitting' in our insular possessions. It is not any the less the duty of the federal courts in cases pending in the federal district court or on appeal from it to defer to that understanding, when it has found expression in the judicial pronouncements of the insular courts, (citing cases). Once understood what deference is to be paid, the problem is comparable to that presented when, lipón appeals from federal district courts sitting in the states, the federal appellate courts are required to follow state law under the rule of Erie v. Tompkings, 304 U. S. 64 . See Wichita Company v. City Bank, 306 U. S. 103 ; Huddleston v. Duyer, No. 628, decided May 15, 1944.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Díaz de la Torre v. Porto Rico Ry., Light & Power Co.

2. “the peculiarly delicate task of examining and appraising the local law in its setting, with the sympathetic disposition to safeguard in matters of local concern the adaptability of the law to local practices and needs. It is one which ordinarily cannot be performed summarily or without full argument and examination of the legal questions involved. But if in the light of such an examination it is found that the rule adopted by the local tribunal is an intelligible one, not shown to be out of harmony with local law or practice, it is not to be rejected because we think a better could have been devised or because we find it out of harmony with our own traditional system of law and statutory construction.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Saludes v. Ramos

3. “comparable to that [applied] when, upon appeals from federal district courts sitting in the states, the federal appellate courts are required to follow state law under the rule of Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 918 F. Supp. 872 - Monsanto-Swan v. Government of the Virgin Islands