United States v. Meyer’s Empirical Analysis
398 F.2d 66 · 1968
Citation profile
22 federal appellate · 2 district · 17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 54 later decisions — most recently January 2014 · most notably 6 Cal. 3d 920 - Nestle v. City of Santa Monica (1972), Southern Railway Company v. Carl Talmadge Lanham (1969)
22 federal appellate · 2 district · 17 state decisions — followed in 12 states
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 Hickman v. Taylor · United States v. Procter & Gamble Co. · Oceanside Union School District v. Superior Court · Alltmont v. United States · 58 Cal. 2d 194 - San Diego Professional Assn. v. Superior Court
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 54 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"* * * Discovery from appraisers not subsequently called as witnesses does not serve to clarify the areas of dispute, narrow the issues, or protect the discoverer from surprise. It is not necessary to prepare for cross-examination or rebuttal of those appraisers' testimony. On the other hand, appraisers not called as witnesses may have discovered facts, applied techniques, or arrived at opinions which, though not acceptable to the government, were nevertheless relevant to the subject matter of the litigation and helpful to the landowner. It would be intolerable to allow a party to suppress unfavorable evidence by deciding not to use [it] at trial." United States v. Meyer, supra, 398 F.2d at 76 .”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"* * * Thus the pleadings in a condemnation case are wholly uninformative on the only issue to be tried: the amount of compensation to be paid for the property. "Because land appraisal is complex and technical, usually evidence on the issue of value consists principally of the opinions of opposing experts. These opinions are notoriously disparate. The weight to which an appraiser's opinion testimony is entitled turns upon the validity of the appraiser's premises, procedures, and theories; the soundness of his factual determination; the comparisons he has made; the methods he has followed, and the formulae he has applied. Basically, the trial of a condemnation suit consists of the admission into evidence of the opinions of the opposing appraisers and the factual and theoretical bases upon which they rest, and the testing of those opinions by cross-examination and rebuttal. "The appraisers' opinions and their factual and theoretical foundation are peculiarly within the knowledge of each appraiser and, to a degree, that of the party who employed him. The opposing party can obtain this information in advance of trial only by discovery. Since this material will constitute the substance of the trial, pretrial disclosure is necessary if the parties are to fairly evaluate their respective claims for settlement purposes, determine the real areas of dispute, narrow the actual issues, avoid surprise, and prepare adequately for cross-examination and rebuttal." United States v. Meyer, sup”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“A California study of discovery and pretrial in condemnation cases notes that the only substitute for discovery or experts’ valuation materials is “lengthy-and often fruitless-cross-examination during trial,” and recommends pretrial exchange of such material. Calif.Law Rev.Comm'n., Discovery in Eminent Domain Proceedings, 707-710 (Jan. 1963). Similarly, effective rebuttal requires advance knowledge of the line of testimony of the other side. If the latter is foreclosed by a rule against discovery, then the narrowing of issues and elimination of surprise which discovery normally produces are frustrated. Proposed Amendments to Civil Rules, 43 F.R.D. 211 , at 234 (Judicial Conference of the United States, 1967).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.