Mitchel v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis
1941
Citation profile
34 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 34 later decisions — most recently July 2018 · most notably Estate of Platt (1942), Estate of Madison (1945)
34 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Grey v. Tubbs · 28 Cal. App. 399 - Firth v. Los Angeles Pacific Land Co. · 123 Cal. App. 373 - Marlin v. Robinson · 128 Cal. App. 284 - Hill v. General Petroleum Corp. · 32 Cal. App. 681 - Sherriff v. Sherriff
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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Applying these rules of construction to the deed before us, we can only conclude that it was the intention of the grantors to convey 2½ per cent of the oil, gas, etc., recovered from the land they actually owned, which was an undivided half interest in 160 acres, and that they did not intend to convey that percentage of all the oil recovered from the entire tract, as held by the trial court. The grantors were in the position of having a deed before them to execute, which conveyed 2½ per cent of all oil, gas, etc., in certain land, including 160 acres of land in which they held only an undivided one-half interest. Before signing, they inserted in handwriting, the words "an undivided ½ of", before the description of the property in which they held only a one-half interest. This left the deed reading 2½ per cent of all oil, gas, etc., in an undivided one-half of the land in question. Their intention in so doing was quite clear. It was to limit the 2½ per cent royalty to the undivided interest which they owned, and exclude it as to the interest they did not own. If, as contended by respondents, they still intended to convey a 2½ per cent of the oil in the entire 160 acres of land, they were doing a meaningless and useless act.... .... Our conclusion is, that the only reasonable construction to be placed upon said deed is, that it only conveyed a 2½ per cent interest in the oil, gas, etc., in the property which was owned by the grantors, to-wit, an undivided one-half interest in t”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.