Demill v. Moffat’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““This court reviews the judgments of the circuit court in law cases on questions of law only. What question of law is involved in this charge of the circuit judge? Was he of opinion that the plaintiffs had given no evidence tending to the proof of their heirship? If he had said that, we could have reviewed the evidence on that point, and should probably have had no difficulty in pointing out his error. Did he think adverse possession was satisfactorily made out? If so, as that is a defense resting wholly upon facts, it is plain he should have taken the opinion of the jury, unless the facts were unmistakable in their import and were undisputed. Did he think the defendants had proved title out of Thorn through the alleged deed of Hamilton? This again was a question of fact, and the existence of the fact was denied and vigorously contested. But we need not proceed from point to point in the case, and endeavor to surmise on what ground the plaintiffs were turned out of court. The circuit judge has given us no light on that point, and the record can afford none. What we are asked to do in this case is to examine an elaborate record in order to ascertain whether the plaintiffs made out such a case as entitled them to go with it to the jury, and if so, whether the defendant met it by any defense that was so entirely unquestionable as to leave to the jury no discretion to do otherwise than give him a verdict. In other words, we are invited to review this case upon all the facts. It i”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Smalley v. Rio Grande Western Ry. Co.