William and James Brown and Company v. Thomas M'Gran’s Empirical Analysis
39 U.S. 479 · 1840
Citation profile
28 federal appellate · 3 district · 12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 61 later decisions (7 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2015 · most notably Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc. (1995), Dr. Miles Medical Co. v. John D. Park & Sons Co. (1911)
28 federal appellate · 3 district · 12 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 Mechanics' Bank of Alexandria v. The Bank of Columbia · The United States v. The Heirs of Eleazer Waterman
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 61 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““There certainly are cases in which, from the different senses of the words used, or their obscure and indeterminate reference to unexplained circumstances, the true interpretation of the language may be left to the consideration of the jury, for the purpose of carrying into effect the real intention of the parties. This is especially applicable to cases of commercial correspondence, where the real objects, and intentions, and agreements of the parties are often to be arrived at only by allusions to circumstances which are but imperfectly developed.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ Where the consignment is made generally, without any specific orders as to the time or mode oí sale, and the factor makes advances or incurs liabilities on the footing oí: such consignment, there the legal presumption is that the factor is intended to bo clothed with the ordinary right:! o£ factors to sell, in the exorcise of a sound discretion, at such time and in such mode as the usage of trade and his general duty require, and to reimburse himself for his advances and liabilities out of the proceeds of the sale; and the consignor has no right, by any subsequent orders, gi veu after ad vanees have been made or liabilities incurred by the factor, to suspend or control this right of sale, except so far as respects the surplus of the consignment not necessary for the reimbursement of such advances or liabilities.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Rice v. Brook
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.