Davis v. Weir’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 federal appellate · 8 district · 8 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 63 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[a] collection scheme ... that divorces itself entirely from the reality of legal accountability for the debt involved, is devoid of logical relation to the collection of unpaid water bills from the defaulting debtor.”

   8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Sterling v. Village of Maywood · Winston v. City of Syracuse

2. “One or more members of a class may sue or be sued as representative parties on behalf of all only if (1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Zimmer v. City of Seattle · 412 F. Supp. 1375 - Koger v. Guarino

3. “neither that language nor any other state law or local ordinance cited by the defendants expressly creates a lien for unpaid water bills. The Water Works concedes that it has never foreclosed on such a lien and that no recordation devices exist to place such an encumbrance on the record. The lien theory apparently had its genesis in City of Atlanta v. Burton, 90 Ga. 486, 489-490, 16 S.E. 214 (1892), which reasoned that water was furnished to premises and not to people wherefore a charge”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Chatham v. Jackson