Dunn v. Barnum’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate ·

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

1. ““But, independently of French’s testimony, the bad faith of the transaction is apparent upon the face of the deed when the value of the property is considered. The consideration expressed in the deed is $100, and at the time the deed was executed the land was worth $30,000, with a prospect of a rapid increase in value, and it is now worth $1,000,000, or more. However it may have been in past ages, it is certain that in this age, when capital is so abundant, and dealers in, land so numerous, and eager to purchase wherever the investment gives promise of a profit, no man can openly acquire in the market, at private sale, a good and unimpeachable title to '$30,000-worth of land for $100 without exciting the gravest suspicions as to his good faith and the honesty of the transaction. It would seem that one could not purchase land worth $30,000 for $100 without a well-grounded suspicion either that the seller was insane or that his title was bad. In the judgment of all mankind—and there is no surer guide to the right than the universal consensus of opinion among men—such a transaction, unexplained, implies a bad title or bad faith. The instant such a conveyance is set up as evidence of a purchase in good faith and for' value of a sound title, the inference is irresistible that it was procured by fraud, or for a fraudulent purpose. Such a conveyance passes the legal title, and may be good between the parties as a gift, or as a conveyance to remove a cloud from the title, or as a sal”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Mackay v. Gabel