Nelson v. Stoker’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 district · 16 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Equity and justice justify the protection afforded a vendor who parts with his property on the faith that his mortgage or trust deed securing purchase monies loaned to the vendee is entitled to priority over any preexisting claims which may be asserted against the vendee-mortga-gor. To grant a preexisting judgment lien creditor a preference over a vendor’s purchase money mortgage would be to bestow on that judgment lien creditor a pure windfall at the expense of a vendor. Thus, in accord with the overwhelming weight of authority, we hereby adopt and follow the doctrine that grants a special priority to purchase money mortgages.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. United States v. Dailey · Butler v. Wilkinson

2. “As against judgment lien creditors [the purchase money mortgagee] should win because [judgment lien creditors] have not extended their credit in reliance on the right to be repaid out of any specific property, much less out of property previously owned by another and coming to the debtor unpaid for, with the seller of it relying upon that very property he has parted with for his payment. Furthermore, their judgments are obtained before their debtor receives the property to which it attaches on acquisition so they could not have relied upon it in getting their judgment lien. In such a case the general rule that such creditors’ rights should rise no higher than their debtors’ seems clearly appropriate.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 751 F. Supp. 953 - United States v. Guinn

3. “In most states, if the purchaser of land upon receiving a conveyance thereof, as part of the same transaction executes a mortgage to the vendor to secure a part or whole of the purchase price, such mortgage, to the extent to which it actually secures purchase money, is entitled to priority over any preexisting claims, which may be asserted in favor of another person against such land as the property of the purchaser, at least in the absence of an agreement between the parties subordinating the purchase money mortgage to other liens or claims. The vendor is under no obligation to examine the record to discover such claims”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. United States v. Dailey