Bryant v. Butte County’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]he United States may not lose property by adverse possession, [5] absent properly divesting itself of the property: The government, which holds its interests here as elsewhere in trust for all the people, is not to be deprived of those interests by the ordinary court rules designed particularly for private disputes over individually owned pieces of property; and officers who have no authority at all to dispose of Government property cannot by their conduct cause the Government to lose its valuable rights by their acquiescence, laches, or failure to act.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wolff v. Secretary of the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department

2. “While all duties of county commissioners are important, this particular function of maintaining secondary roads has been twice ascribed to them by the legislature. We are not passing judgment on another branch of government, but merely requiring that Butte County Commissioners carry out their duty so prescribed by the legislature.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hansen v. South Dakota Department of Transportation

3. “It shall be the duty of the board of county commissioners and county superintendent of highways in organized counties, to construct, repair, and maintain all secondary roads within the counties not included in any city, incorporated town, or organized civil township. 2”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Matters v. Custer County