Powers v. Elmendorf’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““I can see no good reason why a party should be permitted to withhold' from the knowledge of his adversary documentary evidence affecting the merits of the controversy, only to surprise him by its production at the trial, unless, for some satisfactory reason to be made apparent to the court, each party ought to be required, when it is desired, to disclose to the other any books, papers, and documents within his power which may contain evidence pertinent to the issue to be tried. If the evidence thus disclosed should be conclusive upon the issue, the parties may be saved the expense of a trial, ■and, if not, they will come to the trial upon equal terms, each prepared, so far as the evidence within his reach will enable him to do so, to maintain his side of the controversy. This I believe to have been the intention of the legislature, and this I regard as the true construction of their enactment on this subject.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hart v. Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain Railroad · Federal Mining & Smelting Co. v. Public Utilities Commission