Stearns v. Page’s Empirical Analysis
48 U.S. 819 · 1849
Citation profile
47 federal appellate · 19 district · 24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 163 later decisions (21 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2009 · most notably Wood v. Carpenter (1879), Russell v. Todd (1940)
47 federal appellate · 19 district · 24 state decisions — followed in 11 states
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 Prevost v. Gratz · Davoue v. Fanning · McKnight v. Taylor · Mooers v. White
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 163 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Statutes of limitation form a part of tlie legislation of every government, and are necessary-to the peace and repose of society. When they, are addressed to courts of equity as well as to courts of law, as they seem to he in all cases of concurrent jurisdiction (as in matters of account), they are equally obligatory on each court. In other cases, courts of equity act upon the analogy of limitations at law, and sometimes upon their own inherent doctrine of discouraging, for the peace of society, antiquated demands, by refusing to interfere where there has been gross laches or unreasonable delay. They also interfere in many cases to prevent the bar of the statutes, where it would be inequitable or unjust; as, for example, if a party has perpetrated a fraud which has not been discovered till the statutable bar may apply to it in law, courts of equity will interpose and remove the bar out of the way of the injured party. In cases of mistake, also, as well as fraud, they will not consider the statute as running till after the discovery of the mistake, as laches c-aimot be imputed to the injured party till the discovery of the fraud or mistake has been made. 2 Story’s Eq. § 1520. But as lapse of time necessarily obscures the truth and destroys the evidence of past transactions, courts of chancery will exercise groat caution in sustaining hills which seek to disturb them. They will hold the complainant to stringent rules of pleading and evidence, and require him to make out a clea”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.