Bradley v. Ballard’s Empirical Analysis
1870
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 80 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 92 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 1934 · most notably Pennsylvania Railroad v. St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad (1886), Memphis & Little Rock Railroad v. Dow (1887)
4 federal appellate · 80 state decisions — followed in 21 states
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 Argenti v. City of San Francisco · Bissell v. Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad Companies · Parish v. . Wheeler · De Groff v. . American Linen Thread Company · Hale v. Union Mutual Fire Insurance
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 92 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is said by counsel for complainant, that a corporation is not estopped to say, in its defense, that it had not the power to make a contract sought to be enforced against it, for the reason, that if thus estopped, its powers might be indefinitely enlarged. While the contract remains unexecuted on both sides, this is undoubtedly true, but when, under cover of this principle, a corporation seeks to evade the payment of borrowed money, on the ground that, although it had power to borrow money, it expended the money borrowed in prosecuting a business which it was not authorized to prosecute, it is pressing the doctrine of ultra vires to an extent that can never be tolerated, even though the lender of the money knew that the corporation was transacting a business beyond its chartered powers, and that his money would be used in such business, provided the business itself was free from any intrinsic immorality or illegality. ’ ’”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“for the purpose of compelling corporations to be honest, in the simplest and commonest sense of honesty.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.