McCullagh v. Fortune’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 22 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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The evidence offered to prove any fact in these cases may be either direct evidence of the fact or circumstantial evidence, or be a combination partly of direct and partly of circumstantial evidence. Direct evidence is testimony of witnesses who testify directly to the facts sought to be proven, while circumstantial evidence is the proof of facts and circumstances from which the fact to be proven may be arrived at by such just and reasonable deductions or inferences from the acts, facts and circumstances proven, as the guarded judgment of reasonably prudent and cautious men would ordinarily draw therefrom. “This does not mean that you may resort to conjecture or surmise or be permitted to fancy or imagine situations or circumstances which do not appear in the evidence. The facts and circumstances proven should concur to show not only the particular negligence as the proximate cause of the loss and consequent damage to the parties concerned, but they must be inconsistent with any other rational conclusion. “You have been instructed that before a plaintiff can recover, it or he must prove by a fair preponderance of the evidence that the defendant or defendants were guilty of negligence and that such negligence was the proximate cause of such plaintiff’s damages. In this connection, however, I instruct you further that such negligence need not be the sole cause of the damages. It is sufficient if the negligence of the defendant or defendants is an efficient cause without which ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad v. Johnston's Fuel Liners, Inc.

2. ““The standard by which the conduct of a person in a particular situation is judged in determining whether he was negligent is the care which an ordinarily prudent person would exercise under like circumstances. As has been said, negligence is the omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided by those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs, would do, or the doing of something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do. Concisely stated, the test of due care is the supposititious course of an ordinarily prudent and careful person under the same circumstances.” 38 Am.Jur., Negligence, Sec. 30, P. 676. “Ordinary care is such as an ordinarily prudent person would exercise under similar circumstances. That standard of care is unvarying, but the degree of care varies with the circumstances.” 1 Shear-man & Redfield on Negligence, Revised Edition, p. 6.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wolfe v. Light

3. “It is well settled that where the owner of premises leases parts thereof to different tenants and either expressly or impliedly reserves certain parts thereof, such as entrances, halls, or stairways for the common use of different tenants, “it is his duty to exercise reasonable care to keep safe such parts of which he so reserves control, and if he is negligent in this regard, and a personal injury results by reason thereof to a tenant or to a person there in the right of the tenant, he is hable, provided the injury occurs while such part of the premises is being used in the manner intended.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Gonzalez v. Tounjian