Bennett v. Hunter’s Empirical Analysis
76 U.S. 326 · 1869
Citation profile
15 federal appellate · 5 district · 9 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 97 later decisions (18 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2006 · most notably United States v. Whiting Pools, Inc. (1983), United States v. Lee (1882)
15 federal appellate · 5 district · 9 state decisions
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.
Relationships
Relies on Ex parte McRoberts
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 97 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““What preceded the sale was merely preliminary, and independently of the sale, worked no divestiture of title. The title, indeed, was forfeited by non-payment of the tax; in other words, it became subject to be vested in the United States and, upon public sale, became actually vested in the United States or in any other purchaser; but not before such public sale. It follows that in the case before us the title remained in the tenant for life with remainder to the defendant in error, at least until sale; though forfeited, in the sense just stated, to the United States.” Bennett v. Hunter, supra, at 336-337.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““But to whom did the right to make this payment belong? The obvious answer is, to the owner, either acting in person or through some friend or agent, compensated or -uncompensated. The terms of the act are that the owner or owners may pay; and it is familiar law that acts done by one in behalf of another are valid if ratified, either expressly or by implication, and that such ratification will be presumed in furtherance of justice.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Forderer v. Schmidt““The assessment of the tax merely created a lien on the land, which might be discharged by the payment of the debt, and it seems unreasonable to give to the act, considered as a revenue measure, a construction which would defeat the right of the owner to pay the amount assessed and relieve his lands from the lien.””
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.