Shelton v. Bruner’s Empirical Analysis
1969
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 36 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 39 later decisions — most recently May 1993 · most notably Bridgeforth v. Proffitt (1973), Cook v. Cox (1972)
2 federal appellate · 36 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 Draper v. Louisville Nashville Railroad Co. · Branstetter v. Gerdeman · Vietmeier v. Voss · Annin v. Jackson · Rose v. Thompson
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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Negligence consisting of a driver’s failure to keep a careful lookout is not to be submitted to the jury unless there is substantial evidence from which the jury could find that the driver, in the exercise of the highest degree of care to keep a careful lookout, could have seen the other vehicle or person in time thereafter to have taken ‘effective precautionary action.’ ... A lookout instruction submits failure to see and failure to avoid injury ‘by “any means supported by the evidence.” ’ ... Although a lookout in- struction need not hypothesize the means by which the driver, charged with failing to keep a careful lookout, could have avoided the collision, the evidence must support a finding that he possessed and failed to use such means.... ‘Having the means and ability to avoid a collision means not only the mechanical appliances, such as steering apparatus with which to swerve, signalling equipment with which to warn, or braking appliances with which to slow down or stop, but also the existence of sufficient time and distance, considering the movements and speeds of the vehicles, to enable the party charged [with failure to keep a careful lookout] to take effective action in avoidance.’ ” (Citing authorities.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Evidence that leaves the element of causation in the nebulous twilight of speculation, conjecture and surmise cannot establish negligence.”
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.