Steinman v. Strobel’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “I am mindful of the classical common law process articulated in R. Bridwell and R. Whiten, The Constitution and the Common Law 13-15 (Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1977). That process is given flexibility to embrace change by the doctrine “of desuetude, or the repeal of custom by disuse. Just as custom would be gradually introduced and adopted by consent, so might it gradually be abrogated by the ‘tacit consent of all.’ ” Id. at 22. In James, Comments on Maki v. Frelk, 21 Vand.L.Rev. 891, 895 (1968), it was noted “that juries now do for plaintiffs illicitly what the change [to comparative negligence] would do for them forthrightly. * * * Juries * * * probably speak for the community sense of fairness more faithfully than do legislatures. Consistent jury acceptance of proportional negligence * * * suggests that legislative failure to enact this reform reflects inertia rather than community sentiment.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Gustafson v. Benda

2. “that we should overrule Whitehead and Kales and return the law of torts in Missouri to whatever degree of stability existed for the one hundred and fifty years prior that decision.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Parks v. Union Carbide Corp.