Walker v. Cheever’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 14 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Under the English practice, courts of equity assume a very general jurisdiction over cases of administration, from the fact that the courts of common law and ecclesiastical courts in that country are held not to have powers adequate to give effectual relief. This jurisdiction is said to have been founded upon the principle that it is the duty of the court to enforce the execution of trusts. But it has also been said that other grounds exist, such as the necessity of taking accounts and compelling a discovery. With us there is no ner cessity for assuming such general jurisdiction in equity upon this subject. Our statutes providing for the settlement and distribution of estates in most cases give ample powers to the courts of probate and of common law to enforce all needful remedies to secure the rights of all parties, and, so far as the statutes may apply in the settlement of estates, they take from chancery its jurisdiction.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bedford Quarries Co. v. Thomlinson

2. ““I doubt whether a creditor ought to come into this court, in an ordinary case, and. without some special cause, to collect his debt from an executor or administrator. It would seem not to be enough to state that he is a simple-contract creditor, for this would invite all suits against executors in this court. The ordinary and proper, as well as cheaper and easier, remedy, is at law.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bedford Quarries Co. v. Thomlinson