Smith v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

28 federal appellate · 6 district · 27 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 90 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Nothing can be clearer, both upon principle and authority, than the doctrine that the liability of a surety is not to be extended by implication beyond the terms of his contract. To the extent and in the manner and under the circumstances pointed out in his obligation, he is bound, and no further. It is hot sufficient that he may sustain no injury by change in the contract, or that it may even be for his benefit. He has a right to stand upon the very terms of his contract, and if he does not assent to any variation of it, and variation, is made, it is fatal.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States Glass Co. v. West Virginia Flint Bottle Co. · McMullen v. United States

2. ““When the contract of a guarantor or surety is duly ascertained and understood by a fair and liberal construction of the instrument, the principle, says Chancellor Kent, is well settled, that the case must be brought strictly within the guaranty, and the liability of the surety cannot be extended by implication. 3 Commentaries (10th Ed.) 183; Birkhead v. Brown, 5 Hill, 635 . Liability of a surety, say the court in McClusky v. Cromwell [11 N. Y.] 1 Kernan, 598, is always strictissimi juris, and cannot be extended by construction; and this court, in the case of Leggett et al. v. Humphrey, 21 How. 76 [ 16 L. Ed. 50 ], adopted the same rule, and explicitly decided that a surety can never be bound beyond the scope of his engagement. United States v. Boyd et al., 15 Pet. 208 [ 10 L. Ed. 706 ]; Kellogg v. Stockton, 29 Pa. 460 .””

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

3. ““That any material change in the contract on which he is a surety, made by the principal parties to it without his assent, discharges the surety, even though he may be benefited by such change; the reason being that he has not assented- to the contract in its altered form, and has a right to stand upon the very terms of his undertaking.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Pittsburg-Buffalo Co. v. American Fidelity Co.