Hewitt v. Story’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate ·

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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It is one tiling for the court, in the interest of justice, and in the exercise of the authority conferred and duty imposed upon it by the act of 187Ü, whenever it has reason to believe that its jurisdiction is being imposed upon, of its own motion to cause the necessary inquiry to be made, to the end that all further proceedings may be stopped, and the suit be dismissed in the event it should be found that a fraud upon its jurisdiction had been committed; and quite another thing for parties to interpose pleas out of the regular established order of proceedings. If the plea in question was properly filed, if might with equal propriety have been withheld until all the testimony should be taken, and then put in. It was too late when tiled, or it would not have been too late then. That parties have a right, after answering to tlie merits and permitting testimony to be taken, thereby entailing expense upon the opposite party, and consuming the time of the court and officers, to interpose a plea to the jurisdiction, which from its very nature is a matter to be first disposed of, and which, under the long-established practice, should be interposed before answer to the merits, seems to me out of all reason. Such a practice should never ho tolerated in the absence of statutory requirement, for it would lead to unnecessary expense to the parties, and to great uncertainty, delay, and inconvenience in the proceedings of the court.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Gubbins v. Laughtenschlager