State Ex Rel. Kelley v. Mitchell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “ought to be reserved for those cases in which no alternative measure will be effective.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Friends of Responsible Agriculture v. Bennett · Missouri ex rel. Mo. Clean Energy Dist. v. McEvoy

2. “Mandamus is not the proper remedy in this case. It is among the fundamentals of the law relating to the issuance of such a writ that it will not be awarded but as an extraordinary remedy, only issuing when the law, in the ordinary methods of its procedure, is powerless to grant relief It results from this principle that relief will not be granted an aggrieved party in this unusual way, where he may attain the same result by invoking another adequate legal remedy. In all such cases the courts uniformly refuse to exercise their extraordinary jurisdiction in behalf of a party who, in such a situation, seeks it.... And the principle announced in respect to refusing the writ of mandamus is not affected, nor the 'case changed because the appropriate remedy may involve inconvenient delay, or operate harshly or oppressively on the party complaining....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State ex rel. Todd Hewitt, Relator v. Honorable Kristine Kerr, Judge, Circuit Court for St. Louis County, Missouri