Johnson v. Whitten’s Empirical Analysis
1978
Citation profile
8 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently October 2012
8 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 Pettengill v. Turo · Cushman v. Perkins · Morrison v. Bucksport & Bangor Railroad · Smith v. Preston · City of Bangor v. Lansil
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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A water course cannot be stopped up or diverted to the injury of other proprietors. There is a public or natural easement in such a stream, belonging to all persons whose lands are benefitted by it.... To constitute a water course, it must appear that the water usually flows in a particular direction; and by regular channel, having a bed with banks and sides; and (usually) discharging itself into some other body or stream of water. It may sometimes be dry. It need not flow continuously; but it must have a well defined and substantial existence.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Maddocks v. Giles“To constitute a water course, it must appear that the water usually flows in a particular direction; and by a regular channel, having a bed with banks and sides; and (usually) discharging itself into some other body or stream of water. It may sometimes be dry. It need not flow continuously; but it must have a well defined and substantial existence.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Maddocks v. Giles“Any person injured in his comfort, property or the enjoyment of his estate by a common and public or a private nuisance may maintain against the offender a civil action for his damages, unless otherwise specially provided.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.