Dever v. Clark’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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Although the plaintiff alleges in his petition that he has, on account of the publications complained of, sustained a damage of one thousand dollars on account of each of said publications, it is not necessary for him to prove any specific damage; for the law presumes the reputation of the plaintiff to be good, as also it presumes that his official duties as a public officer were honestly performed, and his professional obligations properly discharged; and an article which tends to hold him up to the public view as an unskilled lawyer and an incompetent officer, is libelous per se (per se meaning of itself), and entitles the plaintiff to damages, unless the defendant establishes the truth of said publication by a preponderance of the evidence.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Knapp v. Green