4 Smith & H. 667 - Wilson v. Calhoun’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Where an instrument is so drawn that, upon its face, it refers necessarily to some existing tract of land, and its terms can be applied to that one tract only, parol evidence may be employed to show where the tract so mentioned is located. But where the description employed, is one that must necessarily apply with equal exactness to any one of an indefinite number of tracts, parol evidence is not admissible to show that the parties intended to designate a particular tract by the description.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. CC Holdings (Tennessee), Inc. v. Tennessee Gas Transport, Inc. (In Re Tennessee Gas Transport, Inc.) · ABN AMRO Mortgage Group, Inc. v. Southern Security Federal Credit Union

2. “[I]t is not essential that the description have such particulars and tokens of idéntifícation as to render a resort to extrinsic aid entirely needless when the writing comes to be applied to the subject-matter. The terms may be abstract and of a general nature, but they must be sufficient to fit and comprehend the property which is the subject of the transaction; so that with the assistance of external evidence, the description, without being contradicted or added to, can be connected with and applied to the very property intended, and to the exclusion of all other property.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. ABN AMRO Mortgage Group, Inc. v. Southern Security Federal Credit Union

3. “"* * * Whether the civil district, town, county, state, or nation is requisite, depends on whether one or all of these is essential to identify and distinguish the particular tract from other lands. The rule appears to be that, when the description in the writing is so definite and exclusive as to afford means of positive identification, its location may be designated by extrinsic proof."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Broaddus v. Grout