381 Pa. Super. 23 - Commonwealth v. Ferguson’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
32 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 34 later decisions — most recently March 2005 · most notably 432 Pa. Super. 183 - Commonwealth v. Wood (1994), 418 Pa. Super. 250 - Heard v. Heard (1992)
32 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 Kelly v. Robinson · Bearden v. Georgia · Tate v. Short · Wyman v. James · Bowen v. Roy
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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(a) The object of all interpretation and construction of statutes is to ascertain and effectuate the intention of the General Assembly. Every statute shall be construed, if possible, to give effect to all its provisions. (b) When the words of a statute are clear and free from doubt all ambiguity, the letter of it is not to be disregarded under the pretext of pursuing its spirit. (c) When the words of the statute are not explicit, the intention of the General Assembly may be ascertained by considering, among other matters: (1) The occasion and necessity for the statute. (2) The circumstances under which it was enacted. (3) The mischief to be remedied. (4) The object to be attained. (5) The former law, if any, including other statutes upon the same or similar subjects. (6) The consequences of a particular interpretation. (7) The contemporaneous legislative history.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“Pennsylvania has a paramount interest in seeing that its limited public assistance funds are distributed as provided by law. If some welfare recipients receive more than their rightful share of these finite resources through fraud, then it is likely that other needy persons will be adversely affected either by reductions in assistance or by the Commonwealth’s inability to increase assistance. Moreover, deterrence of welfare fraud is necessary to maintain public support for such programs.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“The trial court’s finding that the claims agent’s failure to appear constituted a forfeiture of the right to restitution is not justifiable as a sanction for the claims agent's alleged non-compliance with the court's directive to appear. This is so because contempt was not established, and because the Commonwealth's right to restitution may not properly be forfeited as a sanction for contempt.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.