Sopp v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

55 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 55 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The problem involves the balancing of two conflicting policies. It is, of course, necessary to prevent instability of verdicts, fraud, and harassment of jurors, and, on the other hand, it is desirable to give the losing party relief from wrongful conduct by the jury. The court in McDonald v. Pless (1915) 238 U.S. 264, 267-269 [ 35 S.Ct. 783 , 59 L.Ed. 1300, 1302-1303 ], after discussing these policies and stating that the wrong to the individual was the lesser of two evils, concluded that as a general rule the affidavits should be excluded but that there might be instances where the rule could not be applied without ‘violating the plainest principles of justice” (Italics added.) We feel that this is a case which falls within the instances contemplated by the last quoted clause.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 221 Cal. App. 2d 81 - Noll v. Lee