William Shields v. Robert R Barrow’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

313 federal appellate · 138 district · 183 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 1,051 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Persons who not only have an interest in the controversy, but an interest of such a nature that a final decree cannot be made without either affecting that interest, or leaving the controversy in such a condition that its final termination may be wholly inconsistent with equity and good conscience.””

   89 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Vetterlein v. Barnes · Niles-Bement-Pond Co. v. Iron Moulders Union Local No. 68

2. “' The rale as to who shall he made parties to a suit in equity is thus stated In Story, Kq. PI. § 72: ‘it is a general rule in equity (subject to certain exceptions. which will hereafter be noticed) that all persons materially interested, either legally or beneficially, in the subject-matter of a suit, are to be made parties to it, either as plaintiffs or as defendants, however numerous they may be, so that there may be a complete decree between the parties, to prevent future litigation, by taking away the necessity of a multiplicity of suits, and to make it perfectly certain that no injustice is done, either to the parties before it or to others who are interested in the subject-matter, by a decree, which might otherwise be grounded upon a partial view only of the real merits. When all the parties are before the court, the whole ease may be seen; but it may not where all the conflicting interests are not brought oat upon the pleadings by the original parties thereto.’ See, also, 1 Daniell, Ch. Pl. & Prac. 246 et seq. In the case before ns we are unible to see how any final decree could be rendered affecting the parties to She contract sued on without making them all parties to the suit. It is an elementary principle that a court cannot adjudicate directly upon a person’s right without having him either actively or constructively before it. This principle is fundamental. The allegations of the bill show that the contract sued on was made and entered into subsequent to the ter”

   10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Consolidated Water Co. v. Babcock · Consolidated Water Co. v. City of San Diego

3. “[A] circuit court can make no decree affecting the rights of an absent person, and can make no decree between the parties before it, which so far involves or depends upon the rights of an absent person, that complete and final justice cannot be done between the parties to the suit without affecting those rights.”

   8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Greeley v. Lowe · Davis v. Davis