Girard v. Philadelphia’s Empirical Analysis
74 U.S. 1 · 1868
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 32 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 55 later decisions (9 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2017 · most notably Meriwether v. Garrett (1880), Mount Pleasant v. Beckwith (1879)
5 federal appellate · 32 state decisions — followed in 18 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 55 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Nor'can a valid vested estate In trust lapse or become forfeited by any misconduct in the trustee, or Inability In the corporation to execute it, if such existed. Charity never fails; and it is the right, as well as the duly, of the sovereign, by its courts and public officers, as also by its legislation (if needed), to have the charities properly administered.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The city of Philadelphia, as originally laid out in 1683, and as incorporated in 1701, was situated upon a rectangular plot of ground, bounded in one direction by two streets called Vine and South, a mile apart, and in the other by two rivers (the Delaware and Schuylkill), two miles apart; the corporate title of the city being "the Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of Philadelphia.” Upon the neck of land above described the corporate city continued to be contained until 1854; the inhabitants outside or adjoining it being incorporated at different times, and as their numbers extended, into bodies politic, under different names, by the State legislature, and with the city, forming the county of Philadelphia. In 1798, the Revolution having dissolved the old corporation, the legislature incorporated the city with larger powers; and prior to 1854, nearly twenty acts had been passed altering that law, and forming, the whole of them, what was popularly called the charter of the city; but as already said, from 1683 to 1854, the city limits were the same.”
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.