Henslee v. Union Planters National Bank & Trust Co.’s Empirical Analysis
335 U.S. 595 · 1949
Citation profile
333 federal appellate · 52 district · 132 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 853 later decisions (23 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2025 · most notably Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York (1978), Ring v. Arizona (2002)
333 federal appellate · 52 district · 132 state decisions — followed in 21 states
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.
Appellate journey
reviewedUnion Planters Nat. Bank v. Henslee (from Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Ithaca Trust Co. v. United States · Merchants Nat Bank of Boston v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue · Humes v. United States · Jungersen v. Ostby & Barton Co.
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 853 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.”
37 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“the purposes for which the widow could, and might wish to have the fund spent do not lend themselves to reliable prediction.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the first object to be accomplished * * * is to take care of and provide for my mother in such manner as she may desire”
6 later decisions 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.