Smith v. Sheeley’s Empirical Analysis
79 U.S. 358 · 1870
Citation profile
25 federal appellate · 25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 72 later decisions (11 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 1953 · most notably Jones v. Habersham (1882), Brant v. Virginia Coal and Iron Company et al. (1876)
25 federal appellate · 25 state decisions — followed in 10 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 72 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is insisted, however, as an additional ground of objection to this deed, that the bank was not a competent grantee to receive title. It is not denied that the bank was duly organized in pursuance of the provisions of an act of the Legislature of the territory of Nebraska, but, it is said, it had no right to transact business until the charter creating it was approved by Congress. This is so, and it could not legally exercise its powers until this approval was obtained, but this defect in its constitution cannot be taken advantage of collaterally. No proposition is more thoroughly settled than this, and it is unnecessary to refer to authorities to support it. Conceding the bank to be guilty of usurpation, it was still a body corporate de facto, exercising at least one of the franchises which the Legislature attempted to confer upon it, and in such a ease the party who makes a sale of real estate to it is not in a position to question its capacity to take the title, after it has paid the consideration for the purchase. ””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“no act of the territorial legislature of any of the Territories of the United States, incorporating any bank or any institution with banking power’s or privileges, hereafter to be passed, shall have any force or effect whatever, until approved and confirmed by Congress.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Fritts v. Palmer“to issue bills, deal in exchange, and to buy and possess property of every kind.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Fritts v. Palmer
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.