The Steamer Syracuse’s Empirical Analysis
79 U.S. 167 · 1870
Citation profile
79 federal appellate · 54 district · 5 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 217 later decisions (26 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2009 · most notably Liverpool & Great Western Steam Co. v. Phenix Insurance (1889), Bisso v. Inland Waterways Corp. (1955)
79 federal appellate · 54 district · 5 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.
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 217 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is unnecessary to consider the. evidence relating to the alleged contract of towage, because if it be true, as the appellant says, that, by special agreement, the steamer is liable, if through the negligence of those in charge of her, the canal boat has suffered loss. Although the policy of the law has not imposed on the towing boat the obligation resting on a common carrier, it does require on the part of the persons engaged in her management the exercise of reasonable care, caution, and maritime skill, and if these are neglected, and disaster occurs, the towing boat must be visited with the consequences.””
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““‘It is objected that the libel does not specifically charge this antecedent negligence as a fault. This is true, and the libel is defective on that account, but in admiralty an omission to state some facts which prove to be material, but which cannot have occasioned any surprise to the opposite party, will not be allowed to work any injury to the libellant if the court can see there was no design on his part in omitting to state them. There is no doctrine of mere technical variance in the admiralty, and, subject to the rule above stated, it is the duty of the court to extract the real case from the whole record and decide accordingly.’ The Syracuse [ 12 Wall. 167 ], 79 U.S. 167 , 20 L.Ed. 382 .””
3 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.