The Ottawa’s Empirical Analysis
70 U.S. 268 · 1865
Citation profile
68 federal appellate · 47 district · 26 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 191 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2007 · most notably Alford v. United States (1931), Arnstein v. Porter (1946)
68 federal appellate · 47 district · 26 state decisions — followed in 11 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
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 191 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“of suitable experience, properly stationed on the vessel, and actually and vigilantly employed in the performance of that duty.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. The Tillicum · The Wilbert L. Smith“‘ ‘ Cross-examination is the right of the party against whom the witness is called, and the right is a valuable one as a means of separating hearsay from knowledge; error from truth; opinion from fact, and inference from recollection, and as a means of ascertaining the order of the events as narrated by the witness in his examination in chief; and the time and place when and where they occurred, and the attending circumstances; and of testing the intelligence, memory, impartiality, truthfulness and integrity of the witnesses; . . .””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Steamers are required to have constant and vigilant outlooks stationed in proper places on the vessel. * * * Proper lookouts are competent persons other than the master and helmsman, properly stationed for that purpose on the forward part of the vessel; * * * and, in general, elevated positions, such as the hurricane deck, are not so favorable situations as those more usually selected on the forward part of the vessel, nearer the stem. Persons stationed on the forward deck are nearer the water line, and consequently are less likely to overlook small vessels, deeply laden, and more readily ascertain their exact course and movements.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.