Chandler v. Nathans’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 federal appellate ·

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

1. “(a) The trustee of the estate of a bankrupt * * * shall in turn be vested by operation of law with the title of the bankrupt as of the date of the filing of the petition initiating a proceeding under this title * * * to all of the following kinds of property wherever located * * * (5) property, including rights of action, which prior to the filing of the petition he could by any means have transferred or which might have been levied upon and sold under judicial process against him, or otherwise seized, impounded, or sequestered: * * * (6) rights of action arising upon contracts, or usury, or the unlawful taking or detention of or injury to his property * * *.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Sussman · Sussman

2. ““ * * * Manifestly this is a property right. Of course such a right cannot be assigned and thereafter the money collected from the government by the assignee, for that would be in violation of section 3477 of the Revised Statutes (Comp.St. § 6383). But here the right was not assigned to the trustee, and the trustee, if he can validly exercise the right, does it not as assignee but as one to whom the right has passed by operation of the bankruptcy law. If it come to him by operation of this law, it is, we shall assume, because of the words of the law, vesting in him ‘rights of action arising * * * from the unlawful taking or detention of * * * his property.’ “There is no doubt that the government unlawfully took and unlawfully detained what, by its refund, it has admitted to be an unlawful tax - — that is, there is no doubt that the government unlawfully took and detained the ‘property’ of the taxable; and there is no doubt that, but for bankruptcy, Chandler would have a right to receive the money refunded. His right to the money refunded was based on his right to his property, and this right was recognized by the act of 1918, when it gave him a method or action by which to regain his property. * * * The right to a refund of taxes unlawfully paid and collected was a new right. Before the statute created it, no such right existed. In conferring the right, the statute provided for its exercise by prescribing the proceeding and designating the forum, namely, the presentation of a”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Goodson

3. ““(a) The trustee of the estate of a bankrupt * * * shall in turn be vested by operation of law with the title of the bankrupt as of the date of the filing of the petition initiating a. proceeding under this title, except insofar as it is to property which is held to be exempt, to all of the following kinds of property wherever located * * * (5) property, including rights of action, which prior to the filing of the petition he could by any means have transferred * * * (6) rights of action arising upon contracts, or usury, or the unlawful taking or detention of or injury to his property; * *”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Goodson