Williamson v. Ackerman’s Empirical Analysis
1908
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 1 district · 26 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 32 later decisions — most recently May 1996 · most notably Motor Equipment Co. v. McLaughlin (1943), Rubenstein v. Rubenstein (1956)
2 federal appellate · 1 district · 26 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 Morse v. Woodworth · Galusha v. Sherman · Adams v. . Irving National Bank · Richardson v. Duncan · Hartford Fire Insurance v. Kirkpatrick, Dunn & Co.
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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““If it be assumed that John misappropriated the money of the plaintiff, and was therefore indebted to it for a large sum of money, nevertheless plaintiff’s representatives had no right to use, or threaten the use of, the criminal law to make the father pay or secure the debt. Such a method is not an appropriate one for enforcing the payment of a debt by the debtor himself, much less to compel the securing of it by one who was in no sense liable for its payment.” (p. 506.) (Emphasis supplied.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““Written securities, extorted by means of threats of prosecution for criminal offenses of which the party threatened was guilty in fact, but which were in no manner connected with the demand for which compensation was sought, may be avoided by the parties executing them, not only in the hands of the original payee, but of his assignees having notice of the circumstances under which such securities were taken.” (Syl.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Graves v. O'Brien““There is no legal standard of resistance which a party so circumstanced must exercise at his peril to protect himself. The question in each case is, Was the alleged injured person, by being put in fear by the other party to the transaction for the purpose of obtaining an advantage over him, deprived of the free exercise of his will power, and was such advantage thereby obtained?” (p. 505.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Riney v. Doll
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.