Brewer v. Poole’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 48 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 51 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(a) (1) Whenever the death of a person shall be caused by a wrongful act, neglect, or default and the act, neglect, or default is such as would have entitled the party injured to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereof, if death had not ensued, then, and in every such case, the person who, or company, or corporation which would have been hable if death had not ensued shah be hable to an action for damages, notwithstanding the death of the person injured, and although the death may have been caused under such circumstances as amount in law to a felony. (2) The cause of action created in this subsection shall survive the death of the person wrongfully causing the death of another and may be brought, maintained, or revived against the personal representatives of the person wrongfully causing the death of another. (b) Every action shah be brought by and in the name of the personal representative of the deceased person. If there is no personal representative, then the action shall be brought by the heirs at law of the deceased person. (d) The beneficiaries of the action created in this section are the surviving spouse, children, father and mother, brothers and sisters of the deceased person, persons standing in loco parentis to the deceased person, and persons to whom the deceased stood in loco parentis....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Rice v. Tanner

2. “It is well settled that the wrongful-death statute “intend[s] one action to be brought for the death sued on.” McBride [v. Berman], 79 Ark. [62] at 65, 94 S.W. at 913 [(1906)]. “[W]hen the action is brought by the heirs there must be but a single action, and all the heirs must be made parties to it, so that the entire controversy may be determined and the entire amount recovered and distributed in the single action given by the statute.” St. Louis, I.M. & S. Ry. Co. v. Needham, 52 F. 371, 375 (8th Cir. 1892) (construing Arkansas’s wrongful-death statute). With the legislative intent of the statute in mind, as well as our prior case law concerning the necessity of joining those parties entitled to recover, we believe that for the purposes of the wrongful-death statute, the term “heirs at law” as used in § 16-62 — 102(b) means “beneficiaries” as used in § 16-62-102(d). Therefore, where there is no personal representative to bring a wrongful-death action, all statutory beneficiaries must be joined as plaintiffs to the action.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Rice v. Tanner

3. “Who, then, are the heirs at law for purposes of the wrongful-death statute? When faced with this question in St. Louis, I.M. & S. Railway Co. v. Corman, 92 Ark. 102 , 122 S.W. 116 (1909), this court looked to the wrongful-death statute and determined that by the plain language of the statute, the widow and the child were the heirs at law because they were the only parties entitled to recover under the statute. As such, we found that the widow and the child were the only necessary parties to the action. See id. at 107 , 122 S.W. at 118 ; see also McBride [v. Berman], 79 Ark. at 65, 94 S.W. at 913 [(1906)] (“While the wife is not technically an ‘heir at law,’ ... she is specifically named in this statute as a beneficiary in [a wrongful-death action].”)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Rice v. Tanner