Commonwealth v. Wanamaker’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

31 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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The law with régard to timeliness of settlement has been articulated by this Court on three prior occasions. In Commonwealth v. Allied Building Credits, Inc., 385 Pa. 370 , 123 A.2d 686 (1956), it was held that when a tax settlement is made after the expiration of the time limit set out by statute, the settlement cannot stand absent affirmative proof by the taxing department that it was not possible to make the settlement within the required time. A decade later in Commonwealth v. Safe Harbor Water Power Corp., 423 Pa. 101, 104 , 223 A.2d 223 (1966), this Court reaffirmed Allied and summarized the applicable legal principles as follows: “(1) [I]f a settlement is not made within the time provided by the statute, the burden is upon the Commonwealth to explain why the settlement should not be held invalid because of lateness; (2) the justification for permitting the Commonwealth to explain in the first instance is the presence of the phrase ‘so far as possible’ in § 8(a) of the Act [Corporate Net Income Tax Act]; 6 (3) this phrase relieves the Commonwealth from compliance with the time requirements of the statute under circumstances wherein the Commonwealth was unable to act at all or, though able to act, was under some disability which prevented it from acting promptly; (4) what constituted such circumstances is a question which must be determined on the facts of each case.” The opinion added the qualification that “without completely foreclosing the possibility that in a given”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. West Penn Power Co. v. Cohen

2. “It is a primary canon of construction that statutes must be construed in such a way as to effectuate the legislative purpose and policy.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. v. Comwlth. of PA

3. “extenuating circumstances can, if proven, relieve the authorities from strict compliance with the statutory limitation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 120 Pa. Commw. 504 - BENEFICIAL FIN. CON. DIS. CO. v. Com. of Pa.