Lobalzo v. Varoli’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 federal appellate · 53 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 84 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “When an error in a trial is of such consequence that, like a dash of ink in a can of milk, it cannot be strained out, the only remedy, so that justice may not ingest a tainted fare, is a new trial.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 335 Pa. Super. 203 - Commonwealth v. Gaerttner · Mitchell, L. v. E. Shikora, D.O., Aplts.

2. “Where the jury is being instructed on the law, the language must be imperative. A jury has no latitude of interpretation in the realm of the law. It, of course, has plenary authority to weigh the value of controverted facts ( that indeed is its primary function) and to determine on the scale of credibility what witnesses are to be believed and not believed. But where legal principles are involved they have no discretion whatever. They must obey the judge as a ship's crew must obey their captain, as building workers must follow the blueprints of the architect; as nurses must carry through what is told them by the surgeon, and as pupils must faithfully hearken to their teacher. But in order to demonstrate that loyalty and put into effect the instructions they receive, the subordinates must know what the instructions are and what they mean. A ship's captain who shrouds his orders in ambiguity or indecisiveness takes the chance of having his ship run onto the rocks of disaster. Instructions to the jury which suggest doubt in the mind of the judge as to what the law is can only introduce into the jury box confusion where there should be certainty, indefiniteness where there must be sureness. Law at its best is a maze of complexities to the average layman. Jurors, therefore, are not be asked to find their own way through the jurisprudential webwork. They must have a surefooted guide, and that guide must be the judge. Lobalzo v. Varoli, 409 Pa. 15 , 185 A.2d 557 (1962).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 313 Pa. Super. 279 - Dohan v. Stahlnecker

3. ““A person who is injured through the fault of another is entitled to receive suitable damages from the wrongdoer regardless of payments received by the victim from sources other than the wrongdoer’s pocketbook. For instance, a tortfeasor would not be heard to argue that the person he had injured received payments on an accident insurance policy and that, therefore, he (tortfeasor) should not be required to pay the injured person anything.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Berguido v. Eastern Air Lines, Inc.