Bronson v. Oakes’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 federal appellate · 3 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It is well settled that what constitutes negligence is a question of fact for the jury, and it does not cease to be such although the facts are undisputed, for that would be to deprive a suitor of his constitutional right to have the material facts in his case tried by a jury. Whether, upon the conceded facts In this case, the act of the defendant was negligent, is the principal and ultimate fact in the ease, and the decision of this fact, like any other disputed fact in a case, rests with the jury, and not with the court. The question of contributory negligence is likewise one of fact for the jury. There is no statute or law which defines the quality of every human action, and stamps it in advance as either negligent or prudent. The law cannot anticipate the conduct and actions of men in all the varying and multiplied relations they sustain to each other, and declare in advance what shall be esteemed prudent and what negligent. The facts and circumstances of this case as they are disclosed by the complaint differ from the facts and circumstances of any case that ever occurred before, or any case that is likely to occur in the future. It is manifest, therefore, that, if the court should decide as a matter of law that these facts and circumstances do or do not constitute negligence in law, it would be a case where the decision made the law, and not the law the decision. And hence the doctrine is firmly established that these questions of negligence are questions of fact for t”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Thomas v. San Pedro, L. A. & S. L. Ry. Co.

2. “•‘The defendants were under no legal obligation to provide vestibuled trains for tbeir passengers, but, having done so, it was their duty to maintain them in a reasonably safe condition. Railway Co. v. Glover (Ga.) 18 S. E. 406 , 414. The purpose of the vestibuled cars is to add to the comfort, convenience, and safety of passengers, more particularly while passing from one car to another. The presence of such an appliance on a train is a proclamation by the company to the passenger that it has provided him a safe means of passing from one car to another, and an invitation for him to use it as his convenience or necessity may require. Whether, having provided vestibuled cars for their passenger trains, it was negligence in the defendants to leave the vestibule connection between two cars without light, and the outside door of the vestibule open without a guardrail or other protection while the train was running rapidly on a dark night, is a question of fact for the jury to determine; and if, upon the facts set out in the complaint, they should find that it was negligence, no court could disturb their finding."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. Adams

3. “. “But we think these questions (of negligence) are for the jury to determine. We see no reason, so long as the jury system is the law of the land, and the jury is made the tribunal to decide disputed questions of fact, why it should not decide such questions as this as well as others. * * * Instead of the course here pursued, a due regard for the respective functions of the court and jury would seem to demand that these questions should have been submitted to the jury, accompanied by such instructions from the presiding judge as would have secured a sound verdict.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Myers v. Chicago, St. P., M. & O. Ry. Co.