Turner v. Hart’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 29 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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It was claimed on the part of counsel for defendants that we should apply the rule adopted in Massachusetts, and laid down in Cowell v. Thayer, 5 Metc. (46 Mass.) 253 ( 38 Am. Dec. 400 ), and approved in Ray v. Fletcher, 12 Cush. (66 Mass.) 200, that the height to which a millowner will have a prescriptive right to maintain the water will depend upon the height of the dam by which he has raised it, and not upon the height such dam has set the water back and flowed the land in question during the prescriptive period; and, therefore, if he repairs the dam without so changing it as to raise the water higher than the old dam, when tight and in repair, would raise it, and thereby keeps the water more constantly and at a greater height than before, it is not a new nse of tbe stream, but a nse conformable to Ms prescriptive right. “We cannot accede to this doctrine. It is antagonistic to the principle which underlies the doctrine of prescription. Title or rights in lands founded on prescription originate from the fact of actual, adverse, peaceable, open, and uninterrupted possession for such length of time that the law presumes that the true owner, by his acquiescence, has granted the land, or interest to the land, so held adversely.” Turner v. Hart, 71 Mich. 128, 137, 138 ( 15 Am. St. Rep. 243 ).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Marr v. Hemenny

2. ““In view of the practical destruction of 300 acres of land or over, be its value what it may, and the consequent, and weekly, and perhaps daily, recurring injury to each of the complainants, for which they severally would have a right of action, presenting a multiplicity of suits and vexatious litigation, it appears to us to be just and equitable that defendants should be decreed to abate and remove the top of their dam so as to lower the structure 12 inches, and that they should perform such decree on or before the 1st day of December next, and that they should be enjoined from raising the water at their said dam so as to cause the water to set back and overflow the lands of complainants, or either of them, or to such height as will cause the water to set back and percolate through the soil of complainants, or either of them, to a greater extent than was customary or usual prior to the time repairs were made upon said dam in 1881.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brockway v. Hydraulic Power & Light Co.

3. “t{ Every author treating upon the subject of hydrodynamics acknowledges and points out the difference between theoretical and actual tests, and, in advancing practical rules, modifies the theoretical to correspond as nearly as possible to actual observation and experience. We think the observation and experience of the witnesses introduced by complainants is controlling when brought in conflict with instrumental measurements, however accurately and carefully taken.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sheffield Car Co. v. Constantine Hydraulic Co.