Stephenson v. Corder’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It may well be questioned whether under the evidence in this case the fact that it broke draws with it any presumption that the strap was so defective as to make its use under ordinary circumstances negligence. . . . Ordinary care is all that was required of the defendant, and ordinary care does not require that all possible means for avoiding accident should be used. Quite true, the accident would not have occurred had the horses been hitched to an unbreakable rack with an unbreakable chain; nor would it have occurred had not the defendant driven to the city on that day; but ordinary care does not require the use of such precautions.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Abbott v. Howard · Wilson v. Rule

2. ““The injurious result would not have followed had not the new and independent cause intervened. This new cause had no causal connection with the negligence of Stephenson. The hitting of the mare on the nose by the boy was not caused by the defect in the halter, nor was it under the control of Stephenson; nor can it be said with the slightest fairness that it could have been foreseen by the exercise of reasonable diligence on his part.” (Page 482.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Rodgers v. Missouri Pacific Railway Co.