In Re: Thomas O Oakley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 district · 2 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]hings that are interchangeable should normally be treated the same by the law in order to prevent evasion through easy substitution.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Ad Adver. Design, Inc. v. Sentinel Ins. Co. · Rainforest Chocolate, LLC v. Sentinel Insurance Company, Ltd.

2. “The distinction that we are emphasizing is between use value and exchange value. A napkin has value; you can wipe your mouth with it. Wallpaper has value; you can decorate your walls with it. People do not wipe their mouths with money or paper their walls with it. They value cash only because they can use it to obtain useful goods like napkins and wallpaper. They value money in the bank for the identical reason. Oakley points out that if you lose your checkbook, your bank account is intact, but if you lose cash, it’s gone. It may not be. If cash is stolen from your house, and you have burglary insurance, the insurance company will restore the money to you—but not in cash, instead by check, which you’ll be happy to accept in lieu of cash. If what was stolen from you was a $100 bill, you could not complain if the insurance company wrote you a check for that amount, rather than giving you a $100 bill; or if it gave you five $20 bills instead of one $100 bill— which shows that the piece of rag paper, the tangible embodiment of cash money, is no more indispensable than the stolen checkbook or credit card. In contrast, if your chair were stolen, the insurance company might replace the chair or give you a check for its value, but the one thing it would not do would be to give you cash equal to the value of the check and tell you, sit on this.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 874 F. Supp. 2d 41 - Berkshire-Cranwell Ltd. Partnership v. Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance

3. “The key to a sound interpretation of the words "tangible" and "intangible" in the Indiana debtor-exemptions statute lies in the legislature's purpose, so far as that can be inferred, in making the respective exemptions of such different size. Why would Indiana allow 40 times as great an exemption for tangible property as for intangible property? The answer probably is that Indiana doesn't want the creditor to be able to take away all the debtor's clothes, dishes, towels, toilet paper, appliances, work tools, and furniture, as that would make it almost impossible for him to function; $4000 is a very modest estimate of the amount of tangible property that a person needs to survive as a self-respecting citizen rather than as a beggar or a derelict. 4”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Anderson