McGrath v. Cannon’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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. “Whether a contract is entire or severable, like most questions of construction, depends on the intention of the parties, and must be determined in each case by considering the language employed and the subject-matter of the contract, and how the parties themselves treated it. One of the best statements of the law on the subject, and one often cited by the courts with approval, as that in 2 Pars. Oont. 648, which is: “ If the part to be performed by one party consists of several distinct items, and the price to be paid by the other is apportioned to each item to be performed, or is left to be implied by law, such contract will generally be held to be severable.” As complete and legally accurate a statement of the rule as anywhere to be found is that of Mr. Justice Field in Norris v. Harris, 15 Cal. 226 , viz: “ A contract made at the same time, for different articles, at different prices, is not an entire contract, unless the taking of the whole is essential from the character of the property, or is made so by the agreement of the parties, or unless it is of such a nature that a failure to obtain a part of the articles would materially affect the object of the contract, and thus have influenced the sale had such a failure been anticipated.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. G. Robdell, Inc. v. Scheier · Geo. J. Grant Construction Co. v. Commissioner