Meyer v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1963
Citation profile
65 federal appellate · 43 district · 23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 480 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2017 · most notably Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Stiffel Co. (1964), Rosenblit v. Danaher (1988)
65 federal appellate · 43 district · 23 state decisions — followed in 10 states
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.
Appellate journey
reviewedUnited States v. Meyer (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 101 · 26 U.S.C. § 2056
Relies on United States v. City of New Britain · Aquilino v. United States · United States v. Bess · Commissioner v. Stern · Propper v. Clark
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 480 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In considering the relevance of the doctrine here it is well to remember that marshaling is not bottomed on the law of contracts or liens. It is founded instead in equity, being designed to promote fair dealing and justice. Its purpose is to prevent the arbitrary action of a senior lienor from destroying the rights of a junior lienor or a creditor having less security. It deals with the rights of all who have an interest in the property involved and is applied only when it can be equitably fashioned as to all of the parties.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The equitable doctrine of marshalling rests upon the principle that a creditor having two funds to satisfy his debt may not, by his application of them to his demand, defeat another creditor, who may resort to only one of the funds.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“rests upon the principle that a creditor having two funds to satisfy his debt may not, by his application of them to his demand, defeat another creditor, who may resort to only one of the funds.”
3 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.