Lincoln v. Claflin’s Empirical Analysis
74 U.S. 132 · 1868
Citation profile
65 federal appellate · 11 district · 41 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 186 later decisions (37 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2010 · most notably Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. United States (1911), Palmer v. Hoffman (1943)
65 federal appellate · 11 district · 41 state decisions — followed in 23 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 186 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Interest is not allowable as a matter of law, except in cases of contract, or the unlawful detention of money. In cases of tort its allowance as damages rests in the discretion of the jury.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“is placed on the ground that where transactions of a similar character executed by the same-parties are closely connected in time, the inference is reasonable that they proceed from the same motive. The principle is asserted in Cary v. Hotailing, 1 Hill, 311 , and is sustained by numerous authorities. The case of fraud, as there stated, is among the few exceptions to the general rule that other offences of the accused are not relevant to establish the main charge.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is possible the court erred in its charge upon the subject of damages in directing the jury to add interest to the value of the goods.....But the error, if it be one, cannot be taken advantage of by the defendants, for they took no exception to the charge on that ground. The charge is inserted at length in the bill. ... It embraces several distinct propositions, and a general exception cannot avail the party if any one of them is correct.”
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.