Wanamaker v. Cooper’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate ·

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

1. ““As to the use and trade-name of the article described in the opinion of the Board "of Appraisers as ‘metal ornament for Christmas trees,’ there is, under the evidence, no room for doubt. Its principal and almost exclusive use is for the decoration of Christmas trees, and it is known in the trade as ‘tinsel,’ ‘tinsel thread,’ ‘lametta,’ etc., but never as a ‘toy.’ In fact, it is a metal thread, though, in the condition in which it was imported in this instance, it is not fit to be employed as a metal thread for embroidering- or other manufacturing purposes. I do not understand that the Board of Appraisers found these facts to be otherwise than I have stated them. If they had done so, I would, of course have regarded their finding with much respect. There is, however, no conflict of evidence, and the oniy question is as to the correctness of the conclusion which they deduced from the clearly established facts. Their decision was wholly founded upon the assumption that because a toy, broadly defined, is an article mainly intended for the amusement of children, therefore anything which is chiefly used to decorate an object designed to amuse children should itself be taken as a toy. I think this reasoning is unsound. In common speech the word ‘toy’ certainly has no such comprehensive significance, and the evidence shows that in the trade the material in question is not lmown or designated as a toy. When placed upon Christmas trees, it does no doubt contribute to the amusement of ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Thanhauser v. United States