Sommers v. Patton’s Empirical Analysis
1948
Citation profile
13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently November 1979
13 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 Hagler v. Small · People ex rel. Kroner v. Abbott · Porter v. Loehr · People Ex Rel. Moshier v. City of Springfield · Hughes v. Traeger
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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“We are of the opinion that the wording of these sections is not subject to that construction. A reading of the act indicates a legislative intent to benefit only those in service when the act takes effect and those who thereafter become members of the fire departments governed by the act. A `retired fireman' could not be considered a `fireman' under the terms of the act. If a `retired fireman' was to re-enter the service he would then become a `fireman.' Since these provisions apply only to present and future firemen as distinguished from retired firemen, they do not allow for additional compensation for past services as prohibited by section 19 of article IV of the constitution.”
1 later decision 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.