Schell v. Stein’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Sec. 2. As soon as said indexes are prepared, it shall be the duty of the recorder to index in its appropriate place and manner every deed and mortgage thereafter recorded in his office, at the time the same is recorded; and in case he neglect to do so, he and his sureties shall be liable in damages to any person aggrieved by such neglect.” In Pyles v. Brown, 189 Pa. 164 , our Brother Fell said (p. 168), that this act “was probably passed to remedy the defects in the recording acts pointed out by Chief Justice Agnew in the opinion in Schell v. Stein, 76 Pa. 398 , decided in 1874.” There it was said (p. 400): “The question presented byHhe record in this case is, whether a deed regularly acknowledged or proved, and recorded in the proper book, and indexed in the separate index appropriated to the book, but not in the general index of all the deed books, is not defectively recorded. If it be, the conceded principle is, that a deed defectively registered is a nullity as to subsequent purchasers or mortgagees. There is no law which requires the recorder to keep a general index to all the deed or mortgage books in his office. That it is a great convenience, and in the populous counties of the state has become a necessity, is evident, but it is the province of the legislature, and not of this court, to make this convenience or the necessity the subject of law.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Prouty v. Marshall