Prokop v. Gourlay’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 state decisions

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

1. ““It is not easy to determine, from an inspection of the petition, whether the plaintiff’s action was brought to recover for damages sustained by reason of the negligence of his bailee's, or for damages for the conversion of the property by such bailees. But, as the evidence is insufficient to justify a recovery on the ground of negligence, and the plaintiff presented his case on the other theory, the sufficiency of the petition to sustain the judgment should be tested by the rules of pleading applicable to actions for conversion. Tested by those rules, 'the petition is insufficient. No time was fixed for the termination of the contract under which the property was left with Proleop by the plaintiff. That being true, the law will imply a reasonable time. In other words, the plaintiff would have a right to a return of the property only after the bailee had had a reasonable time in which to make the sale contemplated by the contract, and a demand before the expiration of such time would be premature. It will be conceded that, had the time been expressly fixed by the contract, the plaintiff in an action of conversion would have been required to allege the expiration of the contract, or some violation of it, to state a cause of action. The only difference between a case of that kind and the present is that in this case, instead of the time the defendants might retain possession of the property being expressly fixed by the contract, it is implied. It is just as essential that the e”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Gourlay v. Prokop