McKenna v. Commissioner’s Empirical Analysis
1945
Citation profile
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently December 1973
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 Fire Insurance Patrol v. Boyd · Lawson's Estate · Humane Fire Company's Appeal · Wolf v. Commissioner
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.
“The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that the duty of extinguishing fires and saving people therefrom is a public duty; the agency to which such authority is delegated is a public agency, the duties of which are of a public character for the benefit of the public; and the agencies organized as a public benefaction and lessening the burden of the government are charitable within the broad sense of that term. Fire Insurance Patrol v. Boyd, 120 Pa. 624 ; 15 Atl. 553 ; Lawson's Estate, 264 Pa. 77 ; 107 Atl. 376 ; Humane Fire Company's Appeal, 88 Pa. 389 ; Thomas v. Ellmaker, 1 Pars. 98 . These same cases hold that the funds contributed to these agencies for the purpose of charity are held in trust for the public and can not be applied except in furtherance of the charity. The contributions to the agencies are gifts and donations to charity, regardless of whether the associations have or have not been incorporated. Cf. Bok v. McCaughn, 42 Fed. (2d) 616 ; Edith A. Wolf, 40 B.T.A. 1232 . Therefore, we hold that the volunteer fire companies to which the petitioner contributed were organizations of the kind described under section 23 (o) (2) and his contributions are deductible.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“The organizations to which the donations still in question were made were unincorporated associations of individuals organized and operated for the prevention of fire and the protection of life and property from loss by fire and other disasters in the municipalities where they are located and in surrounding communities. There is no other organization in those communities for the prevention and combating of fires. Each of the organizations is equipped and maintained through voluntary contributions made by the municipality in which it is located and by individuals and corporations in that community, and by funds derived from lawn fetes, carnivals, and similar activities. The members of each organization contribute their services voluntarily and without charge. No part of the earnings of any of these organizations inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. They do not carry on propaganda or otherwise attempt to influence legislation.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.