Eber Ward Survivor Owner of the Steamboat Detroit v. Charles Thompson’s Empirical Analysis
63 U.S. 330 · 1859
Citation profile
44 federal appellate · 30 district · 10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 149 later decisions (10 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2016 · most notably Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Culbertson (1949), Commissioner v. Tower (1946)
44 federal appellate · 30 district · 10 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 149 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[W]hen persons join together their money, goods, labor or skill for the purpose of carrying on a trade, profession, or business and when there is a community of interest in the profits and losses.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The Wards contributed a steamboat, to be put into a line for freight and passengers, which had also a contract for carrying the mail. Thompson contributed the good will of an established line, together with his care, skill, and experience. He is to have the general management of the business, and the selection of the officers and crew; but the clerk, or receiving and disbursing agent, is to be appointed by the Wards, and to be under their control. The receipts of the steamer are to be applied (1) to pay expenses; (2) insurance; (3) six thousand dollars to Ward; (4) three thousand dollars to Thompson; (5) the balance of the profits to be equally divided.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Fleming v. Lay
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.