Morella v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “Since mental dysfunctions are neither visible nor palpable, the only way in which a psychiatrist can conduct such an examination is to listen to and, in the light of the doctor’s expertise, critically evaluate what the patient says is disturbing him. To hold that because this process sounds very much like giving an ordinary “history” which, under the law, cannot form the basis of an examiner’s opinion concerning the extent of injury even though no other process is possible in the context of the psychiatrist’s work is imper-missibly to allow the verbal form of a legal construct to control over the realities of the particular situation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. First National Bank of New Castle v. Acra