Putnam v. Osgood’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 2 district · 17 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The avowed object of a mortgage is to secure a debt. If the secret purpose be to protect the mortgagor in the enjoyment of the property and enable him to set his other creditors at defiance, then the mortgage is deemed to be fraudulent and void as to those creditors; and of this there is no controversy. If a trust, inconsistent with the legitimate purpose of a mortgage, is reserved for the benefit of the mortgagor, and that is proved, then a fraudulent intent is, with us and in many other jurisdictions, a conclusion of law. A secret understanding that the mortgagor shall retain the possession of the goods, and continue to sell them as before for his own benefit, is clearly such a trust. As between the parties, the mortgagor remains the owner of the goods, and the mortgage is practically effective only to ward off the claims of other creditors. * * * The practical effect of such a mortgage is to delay and defeat creditors, and it is to be presumed that the parties intended to do what their acts were naturally calculated to accomplish.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Streeter