State v. Collins’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

75 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 75 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ ‘In other words, a witness may be said to have been peculiarly “available” to one party to an action, to that upon that party’s failure to have produced him in court an inference will arise that his testimony would have been unfavorable, when, because of such party’s opportunity for knowledge of or control over the witness, or the community of interest between the two, or the prior statements and declarations of the witness, it would be reasonably probable that the witness would have been called to the trial to testify for such party except for the fact that it was either known or feared that his testimony on the stand would have been damaging rather than favorable.’ ””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Valentine · State v. Goree

2. ““Now the term ‘available,’ in the sense in which we are using it, does .■ not mean merely available or accessible for the service of a subpoena, since any witness who can be found may be subpoenaed at the instance of either party to a cause. To the contrary, the question of whether a witness is ‘available’ to one or the other of the contending parties depends upon such matters as the one party’s superior means of knowledge of the existence and identity of the witness, the nature of the testimony that the witness would be expected to give in the light of his previous statements or declarations, if any, about the facts of the case, and the relationship borne by the witness to a particular party as the same would reasonably be expected to affect his personal interest in the outcome of the litigation, and make it natural that he would be expected to testify in favor of the one party and against the other. In other words, a witness may be said to have been peculiarly ‘available’ to one party to an action, so that upon that party’s failure to have produced him in court an inference will arise that his testimony would have been unfavorable, when, because of such party’s opportunity for knowledge of or control over the witness, or the community of interest between the two, or the prior statements and declarations of the witness, it would be reasonably probable that the witness would have been called to the trial to testify for such party except for the fact that it was either known o”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Lyons v. Taylor · State v. Sparks

3. ““A party has no right to complain of the opposing party’s failure to bring witnesses which are equally available to both parties. There is nothing in this record to show that the nurses could not have been summoned as witnesses for plaintiff as well as for defendant. They were not shown to be under the control of the defendant, or that plaintiff was unable to ascertain their names or locations.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Valentine