Johnston v. Wolf’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district ·

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

1. “[Statutes (which correspond to current § 174) protecting the integrity of a corporation’s stated capital aim at ‘protecting those who have extended credit to a corporation and who have relied on stated capital as a trust fund for the security of creditors.’ * * * The purpose of section 174 ... is to provide a cause of action to creditors who have extended credit to a corporation based on that corporation’s stated capital. And when the corporation impairs that capital by an illegal redemp tion of stock, it depletes the creditors’ “trust fund” and seriously jeopardizes their means to recover their debts.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Buckhead America Corp. v. Reliance Capital Group, Inc. (In Re Buckhead America Corp.)

2. “The statute here in question, 8 Del.C. § 174, provides in essence that directors who are guilty of “wilful or negligent violation” of the statutes governing the purchase or redemption by the corporation of its own stock or of the issuance of dividends on its own stock (8 Del.C. §§ 160, 173), “shall be jointly and severally liable at any time within six years after paying such unlawful dividend or after such unlawful stock purchase or redemption, to the corporation and to its creditors in the event of its dissolution or [insolvency]....””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Buckhead America Corp. v. Reliance Capital Group, Inc. (In Re Buckhead America Corp.)