The Republic’s Empirical Analysis
61 F. 109 · 1894
Citation profile
24 federal appellate · 23 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 60 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 1969 · most notably Luckenbach v. W. J. McCahan Sugar Refining Co. (1918), Wesley Richardson v. Judson Harmon (1911)
24 federal appellate · 23 district ·
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 Craig v. Continental Insurance · the Schooner Freeman v. Alvah Buckingham · Franklin Moore George Foot and George Bagley v. The American Transportation Company · Walker v. The Transportation Company · Quinlan v. Pew
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 60 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““We do not find it necessary to consider whether a shipowner is denied the protection of the statute whenever the loss has occurred from' the unseaworthy or defective condition of his vessel. The warranty of seaworthiness which is always implied on the part of the shipowner holds him to the-obligation of providing a vessel which -is in all respects reasonably fit for the voyage and employment in which she is to engage. Yet there may be-a breach of this obligation without his knowledge, and without his personal negligence. He may have employed a most competent expert to make ali necessary examination of the vessel just prior to the voyage,—an expert possessing skill and experience far beyond his own,—and the expert may have failed to exercise sufficient care to discover defects which ought to-have been found. It would be a hard construction of the statute which would deprive the shipowner of protection under such circumstances.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The English courts have always construed the acts as intending to exempt the shipowner when he himself has not been in any way to blame, and to deny him the limitation of his liability only when personal blame is attributable to him [citing authorities]. Undoubtedly, by our statute, as by, the English statutes, the common-law liability of the shipowner is not restricted in cases where his personal neglect has been an inducing cause of the loss. It was the intention of Congress to relieve shipowners from the consequences of all imputable culpability by reason of the acts of their agents or servants, or of third persons, but not to curtail their responsibility for their own willful or negligent acts [citing authorities]. A loss is not occasioned without the knowledge or privity of the shipowner when it arises from his personal neglect to inform himself of the defective condition of his vessel; the vessel being under his immediate personal supervision.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““We do not understand it to be seriously argued that section 18 of the act of congress of June 26, 1884, displaces the liability of shipowners for losses occasioned by their own negligent acts. The section does not purport to repeal any pre-existing law, but is legislation in pari materia with the act of 1851. The scope and object of the section are pointed out in Force v. Insurance Co. (D. C.) 35 Fed. 778 ; The Amos D. Carver, Id. 669; and Gokey v. Fort (D. C.) 44 Fed. 364 . It has no application to the present questions.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Rudolf v. Brown
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.