State v. Cherry’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Likewise, the Supreme Court, in State v. Walker, 441 S.W.2d 168 (Tex.1969) explains that the “severed land” instruction really means “considered entirely apart from the increase or decrease in the value of the remaining land.” Even an experienced condemnation lawyer may have difficulty with these mental gymnastics. Expecting juries to perform them seems to assume a degree of mental agility which jurors are not usually supposed to possess. Counsel for the landowner should not have the burden to persuade the jury to adopt an interpretation which seems to vary from the literal meaning of the language used in the charge. [[Image here]] For these reasons we conclude that in the Uselton submission, the “severed land” instruction is not required and may be prejudicial to the landowner. Moreover, it may be confusing to expert witnesses in that it tends to prevent them from including in the value of the part taken any additional value it may have as a part of the whole. Therefore, we suggest that in place of the phrase “considered as severed land," the trial court used the words “considered entirely apart from the increase or decrease in value of the remaining land.” This is the true meaning of the “severed land” instruction, as the Supreme Court explained in State v. Walker, supra. This modified instruction will avoid the possibility, which troubled the Carpenter court, that the jury might include severance damage to the remainder in valuing the part taken, and will also avoid the po”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Roberts v. State