Musser v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 5 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Dear Mr. Yust: Thank you for the time you spent with me over the telephone this morning allowing me the opportunity to explain the services of our guard division, investigative division and our polygraph division, Truth Verification. Under the name Truth Verification, Inc. which was in the years past a separate corporation, we started commercial polygraph in the State of Texas in the early 1950s. We opened up the first commercial polygraph office in Houston in the late 1950s. With offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston, we have pioneered commercial polygraph here in the State of Texas for the last 25 years. I was certainly glad to hear that you are the security director of Sterling Electronics. In years past, our good competitor, Mr. Bob Musser, acted as the Sterling Electronics security director and although he did ocassionally refer us undercover and investigative business, we were, for all practical purposes, “wired-out” when it came to any polygraph services. As I mentioned over the telephone, because of the fine job we did in training Mr. Bob Musser, we can vouch for his competence. He is a fine polygraph examiner and a very strong competitor. Originally, Sterling Electronics was a Truth Verification client. When Mr. Musser left us, he was able, as so many of our ex-employees have in the past, to relieve us of certain of our polygraph accounts. The two major accounts that he took were Sterling Electronics and Finger Furniture Company. When I originally sp”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Musser v. Smith Protective Services, Inc.

2. “We fail to see how the statement complained of is defamatory. It calls plaintiff a strong and successful competitor. In our free enterprise system competition is expected, not unethical. The statement does not charge plaintiff with the commission of a crime or the violation of any law. It does not accuse him of violating any kind of contract, such as a covenant against competition. In our opinion by no stretch of the imagination does it charge him with any unethical acts and business dealings. It accuses him of absolutely nothing except what he had a right to do, that is, to compete with Smith for business including business from customers of Smith.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Musser v. Smith Protective Services, Inc.