Merrill v. Stringer’s Empirical Analysis
1954
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 44 later decisions — most recently March 1988 · most notably Lucero Ex Rel. Lucero v. Torres (1960), Mahoney v. JC Penney Company (1962)
2 federal appellate · 42 state decisions
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 Girdner v. Union Oil Co. · Merchants Transportation Co. v. Daniel · Hoy v. Tornich · Center v. Yellow Cab Co. · Thayer v. Denver & Rio Grande R. R.
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 44 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(a) That the plaintiff has been negligent; (b) That as a result of his negligence, he is in a position of peril, from which he cannot escape by the exercise of ordinary care; (c) That the defendant knows, or should have known, of plaintiff’s peril; and (d) That defendant then had a clear chance, by the exercise of ordinary care, to avoid the injury, and that he failed to do so.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage““The verdict should be directed only if in the exercise of sound discretion the court can say there is neither evidence nor permissible inference which would support a verdict for the plaintiff.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““ * * * It must appear, (1) that plaintiff has been negligent, (2) that as a result of his negligence he is in a position of peril from which he cannot escape by the exercise of ordinary care, (3) that the defendant knows or should have known of plaintiff’s peril, and (4) that defendant then had a clear chance, by the exercise of ordinary care, to avoid the injury, and that he failed to do so. * * * ””
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.