Norwich Company v. Wright’s Empirical Analysis
80 U.S. 104 · 1871
Citation profile
91 federal appellate · 78 district · 8 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 333 later decisions (50 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2022 · most notably The Osceola (1903), Just v. Chambers (1941)
91 federal appellate · 78 district · 8 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 Philip v. Nock
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 333 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“to encourage ship building and to induce capitalists to invest money in this branch of industry.”
16 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Tile liability of the owner of any vessel * * * for any * * * thing * * * done without the privity, or knowledge of such owner or owners shall in no case exceed the amount or value of the interest of such owner in such vessel, and her freight then pending.””
12 later decisions quote this exact passage““The act does not state what court shall be resorted to, nor what proceeding shall bo taken, but that the parties, or any of them, may take ‘the-appropriate proceeding in any court, for the purpose of apportioning the sum for which,’ etc. Now, no court is better adapted than a court of admiralty to administer precisely such relief. It happens every day that the procéeds of a vessel, or other fund, is brought into that court to be distributed amongst those whom it may concern. Claimants are called in by monition to present and substantiate their respective claims, and the fund is divided and distributed according to the respective liens and rights of all the parties. Congress might have invested the Circuit Courts of the United States with the jurisdiction of such cases by bill in equity, blit it did not. It is also evident that the state courts have not the requisite jurisdiction. Unless, therefore, the District Courts themselves can administer the law, we are reduced to the dilemma of inferring that the Legislature has .passed a law which is incapable of execution. This is never to be done if it can be avoided. We have no doubt that the District Courts, as courts of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, have jurisdiction of the matter; and this court undoubtedly has the power to make all needful rules and regulations for facilitating the course of proceeding.””
6 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.