Doerr v. Schmitt’s Empirical Analysis
1941
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 22 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently June 2024 · most notably 142 Ill. App. 3d 717 - Meeker v. Gray (1986), Rock Island Bank & Trust Co. v. Stauduhar (1978)
5 federal appellate · 22 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Gaines v. Miller · Hamer v. New York Railways Co. · Dow v. Blake · Wayman v. Cochrane · Peoria Savings, Loan & Trust Co. v. Elder
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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The general rule is, that by a judgment at law or decree in chancery, the contract or instrument upon which the proceeding is based becomes entirely merged in the judgment. By the judgment of the court, it loses all of its vitality and ceases to bind the parties to its execution. Its force and effect are then expended, and all remaining legal liability is transferred to the judgment or decree. Once becoming merged in the judgment, no further action at law or suit in equity can be maintained on the instrument.” This rule was reaffirmed in Peoria Savings Loan & Trust Co. v. Elder, 165 Ill. 55 , 45 N.E. 1083 , and has never been departed from. The same rule is stated by Freeman in his treatise on judgments, fifth edition, volume 2, section 546, in this language: “Courts, in order to give a proper and just effect to a judgment, sometimes look behind, to see upon what it was founded, just as they would, in construing a statute, seek to ascertain the occasion and purpose of its enactment. The cause of action, though it may be examined to aid in interpreting the judgment, can never again become the basis of a suit between the same parties. It has lost its vitality; it has expended its force and effect. All its power to sustain rights and enforce liabilities has terminated in the judgment or decree. It ‘is drowned in the judgment,’ and must henceforth be regarded as functus offi-cio.” It is said in Gaines v. Miller, 111 U.S. 395 , 4 S.Ct. 426 , 28 L.Ed. 466 , that where a judgment i”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.