O'Kane v. Lederer’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 3 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Generally speaking, where a statute requires the execution of a bond to a state or to the United States for a fixed penalty, conditioned upon a compliance with" certain laws of a state or of the United States, the penalty named in the bond is the measure of damages for its breach, or rather is a punishment inflicted by the sovereign for the violation of a pledge to observe its law, unless the statute or the bond, read in the light of the statute, indicates a less or a different measure. The question is always one of construction, having regard to the entire statute, the governmental regulations framed to carry out the statute, and the language of the bond. ****** “Punitive bonds of this character, together with the statutory provisions and regulations under which they are required to be executed, should be construed, like tax laws, not according to what seems to be the probable broad, general intention of the government, but strictly in accordance with their provisions, and, where reasonable doubts exist, they should be resolved in favor of the obligor upon whom the punishment is sought to be imposed.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State ex rel. Summers v. Lake Tavern, Inc.