Railway Company v. Whitton's Administrator’s Empirical Analysis
80 U.S. 270 · 1871
Citation profile
103 federal appellate · 49 district · 49 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 395 later decisions (30 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2025 · most notably Huntington v. Attrill (1892), City of Greenwood v. Peacock (1966)
103 federal appellate · 49 district · 49 state decisions — followed in 21 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.
Relationships
Relies on Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Company v. Wheeler · 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 395 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Whenever a general rule as to property or personal rights, or injuries to either, is established by State legislation, its enforcement by a Federal court in a case between proper parties is a matter of course, and the jurisdiction of the court, in such case, is not subject to State limitation.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The defendant is a corporation, and as such a citizen of Wisconsin by the laws of that state. It is not there a corporation or a citizen of any other state. Being there sued, it can only be brought into court as a citizen of that state, whatever its status or citizenship may be elsewhere.” 13 Wall. 283 , 20 L. Ed. 576 .”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It [a corporation] cannot migrate, but may exercise its authority in a for-^ eign territory upon such conditions as may be prescribed by the law of the' place. One of these conditions may be that it shall consent to be sued there. If it do business there, it will be’presumed to have assented, and will be bound accordingly. * * * We entertain no doubt that it made the company liable to suit where this suit was brought, in all respects as if it had been an independent corporation of the same locality.””
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.