Sawyer v. Barton’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 2 district · 14 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 true rule * * * is that absent actual notice, where the facts brought to the knowledge of the intending purchaser are such that in the exercise of ordinary care he ought to inquire, but does not, and his failure so to do amounts to gross or culpable negligence, he will be charged with a knowledge of all the facts which the inquiry, pursued with reasonable diligence, would have revealed. Want of ordinary care alone will not charge him. The circumstances must be such that the failure to make the inquiry suggested by ordinary care will convict the intending purchaser of gross or culpable negligence if he is to be visited with all the consequences of having made the purchase with actual knowledge of the facts."”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. C. B. & T. Co. v. Hefner · Security Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n of Albuquerque v. Commercial Investments, Ltd. (In re Commercial Investments, Ltd.)

2. ““When a person has not actual notice, he ought not to be treated as if he had notice, unless the circumstances are such as enable the court to say, not only that he might have acquired, but also that he ought to have acquired it, but for his gross negligence in the- conduct of the business in question. The question, then, when it is sought to affect a purchaser with constructive notice, is not whether he had the means of obtaining, and might, by prudent caution, have- obtained the knowledge- in question, but whether not obtaining was an act of gross or culpable negligence.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Grammer v. New Mexico Credit Corporation

3. ““Unrecorded instruments — Effect.— No deed, mortgage or other instrument in writing, not recorded in accordance with section 4786 (71-2-1), shall affect the title or rights to, in any real estate, of any purchaser, mortgagee, in good faith, or judgment lien creditor, without knowledge of the existence of such unrecorded instruments.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Grammer v. New Mexico Credit Corporation