Cooper v. Reynolds’s Empirical Analysis
77 U.S. 308 · 1870
Citation profile
122 federal appellate · 23 district · 227 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 556 later decisions (68 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2023 · most notably Milliken v. Meyer (1940), Pennoyer v. Neff (1877)
122 federal appellate · 23 district · 227 state decisions — followed in 40 states
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.
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 556 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“By jurisdiction over the subject-matter is meant the nature of the cause of action and of the relief sought.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““If tlie defendant appears, the cause becomes mainly a suit in personam, with (ho added incident (hat the property attached remains liable, under the control of the court, to answer to any demand which may be established against the defendant by the final judgment of the court. But if there is no appearance of the defendant, and no service of process on him, the case becomes, in its essential nature, a proceeding in rein, the only effect of which is to subject the property attached to the payment of the demand which the court may find to be due to the plaintiff. That such is the nature of this proceeding in this latter class of cases is evidenced by two well-established propositions: First, the judgment of the court, though in form a personal judgment against the defendant, has no effect beyond the property attached in that suit. No general execution can be issued for any balance unpaid after the attached property is exhausted. No suit can be maintained on such a judgment ill the same court, or any other proceeding not affecting the attached property.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It is of no avail, therefore, to show that there are errors in that record, unless they be such as prove that the court had no jurisdiction of the case, or that the judgment rendered was beyond its power. This principle has been often held 'by this court, and by all courts, and it takes rank as an axiom of the law.” Cooper v. Reynolds, 10 Wall. 308 , 316, 19 L.Ed. 931 .”
5 later decisions 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.