Aaron v. Strausser’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

38 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 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Whether or not a given state of facts constitutes contributory negligence as a matter of law or is a question of fact for the jury is determined by the circumstances of the case and whether or not reasonable minds might legitimately differ in their conclusions as to the existence of negligence . . . `Where he [the pedestrian] looks but does not see an approaching automobile, or, seeing one, erroneously misjudges its speed or distance, or for some other reason assumes he could avoid injury to himself, the question is usually one for the jury . . .' The jury could have decided that plaintiff's belief that he could cross the street in safety was reasonable; that he had the right to take into consideration the duty which the defendant owed him, as a pedestrian, to slow down and give a timely signal.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Rafferty v. DiJohn