Wood v. Steele’s Empirical Analysis
73 U.S. 80 · 1867
Citation profile
15 federal appellate · 1 district · 40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 71 later decisions (10 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2018 · most notably Baker v. Carr (1962), Chapman v. Hoage (1936)
15 federal appellate · 1 district · 40 state decisions — followed in 22 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 71 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ To prevent and punish such tampering the law does not permit the plaintiff to fall back upon the contract as it was originally. In pursuance of a stern but wise policy, it annuls the instrument as to the party sought to be wronged.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Hayes v. Wagner““It is now settled in both English and American jurisprudence that a material alteration, without the consent of the party sought to be charged, extinguishes his liability.””
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.