Mulligan v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1881
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 46 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 1961 · most notably Marks v. Bettendorf's, Inc. (1960), Warren v. Borawski (1944)
1 federal appellate · 42 state decisions — followed in 17 states
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 Starbuck v. Murray · Shumway v. Stillman · Weimer v. Bunbury · In Matter of City of Buffalo · Smith v. Smith
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 46 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The statute required the petition to be made to the mayor, but he was charged with no duties in connection with it. He was not authorized to enter into any investigation of the frontage as represented by the petition, or to adjudicate its sufficiency, or to make any record in reference to it. He did append to it a certificate, but this certificate was unauthorized, and it is difficult to see how the unauthorized certificate to a document of a ministerial officer constitutes an estoppel.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““And when the requirement is, that an improvement shall be ashed for or assented to by a majority, or some other proportion of those who would be taxed, a want of compliance with that requirement is fatal to any stage of the proceedings. ‘And any decision or certificate. of the proper authorities, that the requisite application or consent had been made, would not be conclusive, but might be disproved.’ [Citing texts and cases] ””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence““They could not make the occasion by resolving that it existed. Tiiey had power to proceed if a majority petitioned, but without such a petition they had no authority whatever. They could not create the power by resolving that they had it.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.