442 So. 2d 1186 - Thomas v. Jackson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"... The driver in the Sinitiere case inadvertently allowed his right two wheels to ease onto the shoulder. There was only a slight depression, if any, on the shoulder at the point where the wheels left the paved portion of the highway, but the depression deepened over a 100 foot span to the point where the driver attempted to reenter the highway. The driver allowed his vehicle to slow to about 35-40 miles per hour and then attempted to reenter the highway at a point where there was a 3½ to 4-inch drop-off from the paved portion of the highway to the shoulder. Contact between the wheel and the elevated edge of the roadway caused the driver to lose control of his vehicle, careen across the highway, and collide with an oncoming vehicle. The court held that the driver was not negligent in going onto the shoulder but he should have known something was seriously wrong at the point where he attempted to reenter the paved portion of the highway. He was not justified in failing to see the significant depression at that point and his breach of duty to observe what he should have seen was a cause-in-fact of the accident and had a substantial relation to the harm encountered by himself and the occupants of the vehicle with which he collided. The court held the driver was liable to the other parties and was precluded from recovering from the Department, which was also found liable to the other parties because of the defective shoulder...."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 466 So. 2d 811 - Holmes v. State Through Dept. of Highways