State v. Roberts’s Empirical Analysis
1879
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 28 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 1970 · most notably Lawton v. Steele (1894), People v. Truckee Lumber Co. (1897)
1 federal appellate · 23 state decisions — followed in 12 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 Holyoke Company v. Lyman · Inhabitants of Stoughton v. Baker · State v. Franklin Falls Co. · Commonwealth v. Vincent · Cottrill v. Myrick
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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““At common law the right of fishery in navigable waters was public and common to all, and in waters not navigable it was limited to the riparian owner of the soil, and belonged exclusively to him. * * * Hence, while the riparian owner has the exclusive right of fishery upon his own land, he must so exercise that right as not to injure others in the employment of a similar right upon their lands upon the stream above and below. * * * But, while the Legislature has power to regulate and limit the time and manner of taking fish in waters which are public breeding-places or passageways for fish, it has not assumed to interfere with the privileges of the owners of private ponds having no communication through which fish are accustomed to pass to other waters. Such ponds, whether natural or artificial, are regarded as private property, and the owners may take fish therefrom whenever they choose, without restraint from any legislative enactment, since the exercise of this right in no way interferes with the rights of others. The Legislature protects the owners of such ponds in the enjoyment of their privileges, and they are expressly excepted from the statutory restrictions by the third section of the act upon which the indictment in this case is founded. The defendant is in possession, claiming the ownership of North Pond. There is no suggestion that the public have any rights in its waters other than as a breeding place for the supply of fish to other streams, or a channel for the”
3 later decisions 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.