The Patapsco’s Empirical Analysis
80 U.S. 329 · 1871
Citation profile
19 federal appellate · 35 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 67 later decisions (7 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 1954 · most notably Piedmont & Georges Creek Coal Co. v. Seaboard Fisheries Co. (1920), The Glide (1897)
19 federal appellate · 35 district · 1 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 67 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It Is undisputed that The Patapsco was in a foreign port, and that the coal was ordered for her specifically by name, and delivered to the officers in charge of her. It is equally free from dispute that the supply of coal was necessary—Indeed, indispensable—to enable her to make her voyage at all. In such a case the inference is that the credit was given to the vessel, unless it can be inferred that the master had funds, or the owners had credit, and that the materialman knew of this, or knew such facts as should have put him on inquiry.” “If the credit was to the vessel, there is a lien, and the burden of displacing it is on the claimant. He must show affirmatively that the credit was given to the company to the exclusion of a credit to the vessel.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It would fee strange if the libelant did not know this condition of things, and, in the absence of proof on the subject, it is a reasonable inference that he did. If he had this knowledge, it would be a violent presumption to suppose that he relied on the credit of the company at all for the supplies which he furnished.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““If the credit was to the vessel there is a lien, and the burden of displacing it is on the claimant. He must show affirmatively that the credit was given to the company to the exclusion of a credit to the vessel. This he seeks to do by the form of charge in the libelant’s journal and ledger. If it be conceded that these entries tend to support this position, they are far from being conclusive evidence on the subject. Entries in books are always explainable, and the truth of the transaction can be shown independent of them.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. The John L. Lawrence
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.