Bentley v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1889
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 1 district · 23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 30 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 1988 · most notably United States v. Spearin (1918), 14 E.H. Smith 72 - MacKnight Flintic Stone Co. v. Mayor of New York (1899)
4 federal appellate · 1 district · 23 state decisions — followed in 19 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.
Relationships
Relies on Kellogg Bridge Co. v. Hamilton · Smith v. Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad · Schwartz v. Saunders · Clark v. Pope · Seymour v. Long Dock Co.
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.
““The state undei’took to furnish suitable plans and specifications, and required the plaintiffs to conform thereto, and assumed control and supervision of the execution thereof, and thereby took the risk of their efficiency. What was thus done, or omitted to be done, by the architect, must be deemed to have been done or omitted by the state. Moreover, we must hold, notwithstanding the English case cited [Thorn v. Mayor, L. R. 1 App. Cas. 120], that the language of the contract is such as to fairly imply an undertaking on the part of the state that such architect had sufficient learning, experience, skill, and judgment to properly perform the work thus required of him, and that such plans, drawings, and specifications were suitable and efficient for the purpose designed. There seems to be no lack of able adjudications in support of such conclusions.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage““Under the contract, it is very manifest that, had the plaintiffs departed from such plans and specifications and refused to follow the directions of the architect, there could have been no recovery for the building of the south wing, even had they in the first instance built it as they were finally directed by the architect to do. (p. 431.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.