John Bacon v. William Robertson’s Empirical Analysis
59 U.S. 480 · 1855
Citation profile
15 federal appellate · 24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 59 later decisions — most recently December 1970 · most notably Hugh Wallace v. Mrs Ella Adams (1907), Bridge Company v. United States (1881)
15 federal appellate · 24 state decisions — followed in 13 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 The New Jersey Steam Navigation Company v. The Merchants' Bank of Boston · William Smith v. Leroy Swormstedt · Curran v. Arkansas · Jacob Mumma v. The Potomac Company · Thomas Willison v. Anderson Watkins
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 59 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ Corporations of this kind are in truth little more than private partnerships; and in cases which may be easily suggested it would be too much to hold that a society of private persons associated together in undertakings which, though certainly beneficial to the public, are nevertheless, matters of private property, are to be deprived of their civil rights inter se, because, in order to make their common objects more attainable, the crown or legislature have conferred upon them the benefit of a corporate character.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““I think it is the duty of this court to adapt its practice and course of proceeding- to the existing state of society, and not, by too. strict an adherence to rules and forms established under different circumstances, to decline to administer justice, and to enforce rights for which there is no other remedy.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.