Slaughter's Administrator v. Gerson’s Empirical Analysis
80 U.S. 379 · 1871
Citation profile
58 federal appellate · 10 district · 82 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 212 later decisions (8 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2024 · most notably Hyde v. Shine (1905), United States v. American Bell Telephone Co. (1888)
58 federal appellate · 10 district · 82 state decisions — followed in 29 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 212 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The misrepresentation which will vitiate a contract of sale, and prevent a court of equity from aiding its enforcement, must not only relate to a material matter constituting an inducement to the contract, but it must relate to a matter respecting which the complaining party did not possess at hand the means of knowledge; and it must be a misrepresentation upon which he relied, and by which he was actually misled to his injury. * * * Where the means of knowledge are at hand and equally available to both parties, and the subject of purchase is alike open to. their inspection, if the purchaser does not avail himself of these means and opportunities, he will not be heard to say that he has been deceived by the vendor’s misrepresentations. * * * And the same rule obtains when the complaining party does not rely upon the misrepresentations, but seeks from other quarters means of verification of the statements made, and acts upon the information thus obtained.””
25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * Where the means of information are at hand and equally open to both parties, and no concealment is made or attempted, the language of the eases is, that the misrepresentation furnishes no ground for a court of equity to refuse to enforce. the contract of the parties. The neglect of the purchaser to avail himself, in all such cases, of the means of information, whether attribntable to his indolence or credulity, takes from him all just claim for relief.””
2 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.