Thompson v. Andrews’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

35 state decisions

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

1. “But even though the waters of the basin in question are surface waters and there is a legal burden upon respondents’ lands to receive such waters through the natural water course crossing such lands, such burden and the accompanying easement is one that is reasonable, or, as above noted, one consonant with good neighborliness. Under the claim of an easement appellant could not rightfully turn upon the servient estates large volumes of water, out of all proportion to the capacity of the water course, and thus cause serious damage to respondents!)]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Feistner v. Swenson

2. ““The lower landowner cannot sit back like the 'dog in the manger’ and say to his neighbor: You had no easement under which you had a right to discharge waters from your lands across mine, and I will therefore not permit of such discharge even though it will result in no material damage to me.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Lee v. Gulbraa

3. “It is well settled that the common law of a state may differ from that of other states or may even vary from time to time in order to meet the peculiar, and perchance varying, conditions and circumstances of the state.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hoekstra v. Helgeland