Tillson v. Peters’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 federal appellate · 33 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 43 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The complaint does not pretend to state a cause of action based on a book account. It attempts to allege a cause of action for unpaid installments of rent due for a specified period of time from April 1, 1931, to April 1, 1936. . . . “At the trial the plaintiff sought to avoid the effect of the statute of limitations by attempting to prove that the action was founded on a balance of rental shown to be due upon an open book account. It appears that the plaintiff kept an account book and ledger in which he credited the defendant only with certain sums of money, representing installments of rent, on the respective dates when they were paid. The history of the transaction was not recorded in the books. Neither the original indebtedness nor unpaid installments of rent were charged to the defendant or entered in the books. The books were not offered in evidence. It is impossible to determine from the testimony of the contents of the book entries which were adduced what the transaction was about, or whether any balance was thereby shown to be due to the plaintiff. Evidently the books do not disclose those facts.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Gardner v. Rutherford

2. ““Clearly this suit is founded on an oral contract for the leasing of real property. (Sec. 1945, Civ. Code.) It is a suit in assumpsit to recover deferred installments of rent which became due monthly at specified times and in definite sums according to the terms of the oral contract. It has been held that the fulfillment of the terms of either a written or an oral contract, similar to the one which is here involved, may hot be avoided by attempting to convert the suit for breach of the specific terms of a contract into an action based on an open book account. A suit to recover unpaid installments of rental due according to the terms of either a written or an oral contract, in specified monthly-sums, is subject to the bar of the statute of limitations from the respective dates when each installment becomes due. In such an action upon an oral contract the statute of limitations may not be extended from two to four years by the mere device of attempting to convert the cause into a suit based on an open book account."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Gardner v. Rutherford

3. “If the rent became due in monthly installments, which the uncontradicted evidence shows that it did, the right of action accrued upon each installment of rent when it became due, and the statute of limitations began to run on each monthly installment of rent from such dates. (Lee v. DeForest, 22 Cal.App.2d 351, 360 [ 71 P.2d 285 ]; Civ. Code, 1947; 15 Cal.Jur. 723, 133.) The plaintiff, no doubt, alleged that $1,625 rental for the premises was due for the five-year period from April 1, 1931, to April 1, 1936, so as to avoid the effect of the statute of limitations. If that were all that he alleged, the complaint might be deemed to state a good cause of action in assumpsit, on the theory that the rent was really not due until the end of the term specified. But he further alleges that there was $700 interest due on deferred installments of rent, which refutes the theory that the rent was due only at the termination of the contract.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Davenport v. Stratton