Griffith v. Bogert’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 federal appellate · 12 district · 11 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 43 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It would be tedious and unprofitable to attempt a review of the very numerous modern decisions, or to lay down any rules applicable to all cases. Every case must depend on its own circumstances. Where the construction of the language of a statute is doubtful, courts will always prefer that which will confirm rather than destroy any bona fide transaction or title. The intention and policy of the enactment should be sought for and carried out. Courts should never indulge in nice grammatical criticism of prepositions or conjunctions, in order to destroy rights honestly acquired.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Taylor v. Brown · Dutcher v. Wright

2. ““Whether the terminus a quo should be included, it must be admitted, has been a vexed question for many centuries, both among learned doctors of the civil law and the courts of England and this country. It has been termed by a writer on civil- law (Tiraqueau) the ‘controversia controversissima.’ He says that: ‘It was in consequence of the uncertainty introduced on this subject by the disquisitions and disputes of learned professors that Gregory IX, in his decretals, introduced the phrase of “a year and a day,” in order to remove the doubts thus created, as to whether the dies a quo should be included in the term.’ ””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Lagandaon v. Ashcroft · United Timber Co. v. Bivens

3. “The object of the legislature was to give a stay of execution for eighteen months, in drder that the administrator might have an opportunity of collecting the assets of the deceased and applying them to the discharge of his debts. The day on which the letters issue may be used for this purpose as effectually as any other in the year. The rights of the creditor to execution are restrained by the act for the benefit of the debtor’s estate. The administrator has had the number of days allowed to him by the statute to collect his assets and pay the debts. The construction which would exclude the day of the date is invoked, not to avoid a forfeiture or confirm a title, but to destroy one, obtained by a purchaser in good faith under the sanction of a public judicial sale.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Taylor v. Brown