Edgerton v. Bird’s Empirical Analysis
1858
Citation profile
24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 29 later decisions — most recently August 1939 · most notably Ashley Co. v. Bradford (1902), Hamner v. Yazoo Delta Lumber Co. (1911)
24 state decisions — followed in 14 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.
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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““If any force or effect is given to this provision of law, it must, under the facts and circumstances of this case, defeat the action. The defendant has possession under a recorded tax deed, and had had possession under such a deed more than three years at the time the suit was brought. The tax deed was given in 1841, and it does not seem very inequitable to apply this statute of repose as a shield to protect the possession of the defendant.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Waterson v. Devoe
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.