Phineas Foster v. Gorham Davenport’s Empirical Analysis
63 U.S. 244 · 1859
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 2 district · 16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 37 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2001 · most notably Kelly v. State of Washington Foss Co (1937), Pickard v. Pullman Southern Car Co. (1886)
2 federal appellate · 2 district · 16 state decisions
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 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is quite apparent, from the facts admitted in the-case, that this steamboat was employed in aid of vessels engaged in the foreign or coastwise trade and commerce of the United States, either in the delivery of their cargoes, or in towing the vessels themselves to the port of Mobile. The character of the navigation and business in which it was employed cannot be distinguished from that in which the vessels it towed or unloaded were engaged, •' The lightering or towing was but the prolongation of the voyage of the vessels, assisted to their-port of destination. The case, therefore, is not distinguishable in principle from the one above referred to.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Harman v. Chicago
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.