Densmore v. Jefferson County’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 state decisions

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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““This Court, in Board of Water & Sewer Commissioners of the City of Mobile v. Yarbrough, 662 So.2d 251 (Ala.1995), upheld the rationale that, for a fee to be sustained as valid, the benefit conferred on property owners need not relate directly to the exact amount paid. The Court said that a ‘substantial indirect benefit’ to a property owner would suffice to uphold the validity of a fee. 662 So.2d at 255. In Yarbrough , the Board was created to operate Mobile’s water and sewer systems and to address such problems as the fact that ‘raw sewage was being emptied into Mobile Bay and other public waterways.’ Id. at 252 . The plaintiff, whose property was not connected to the sewer system, sued the Board when it began charging residents who were not connected to its sewer system a flat monthly fee purportedly relating to sewer service. Formerly, the Board had charged a combined fee for water and sewer services to all residents, whether they used the sewer service or not. This Court upheld the Board’s prior fee structure and held that a municipal utility is authorized to set fees so as to create a surplus. The Court also held that any surplus resulting from the operation of the water service could lawfully be used for the sewer service, which, this Court found[,] bene-fitted all residents, ‘regardless of whether the customer received sewer service.’ Id. at 253 . This Court also upheld the new fee structure, which charged a separate sewer-related fee to residents who lacked sewer serv”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. St. Clair County Home Builders Ass'n v. City of Pell City

2. “"A general law is a law which in its terms and effect applies either to the whole state, or to one or more municipalities of the state less than the whole in a class. A general law applicable to such a class of municipalities shall define the class on the basis of criteria reasonably related to the purpose of the law, provided that the legislature may also enact and change from time to time a general schedule of not more than eight classes of municipalities based on population according to any designated federal decennial census, and general laws for any purpose may thereafter be enacted for any such class. Any law heretofore enacted which complies with the provisions of this section shall be considered a general law. "No general law which at the time of its enactment applies to only one municipality of the state shall be enacted, unless notice of the intention to apply therefor shall have been given and shown as provided in Section 106 of this Constitution for special, private or local laws; provided, that such notice shall not be deemed to constitute such law a local law. "A special or private law is one which applies to an individual, association or corporation. A local law is a law which is not a general law or a special or private law."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. MADALONI v. City of Mobile

3. “"This Court has held that, by the process of adopting the entire Code, the legislature repeals any portion of the original legislation and prior codification not present in that adoption. See Ex parte Coker, 575 So.2d 43 (Ala.1990). In other words, the adoption of the entire Code supersedes the original enactments and any prior codification. After this Court decided Coker , the legislature refined the codification process and began the current practice of annually codifying legislation. Under this new procedure, the Code commissioner continually reviews the manuscript of the Code and directs the Code publisher to publish replacement volumes and an annual supplement that incorporates into the Code the most recent acts of a general and permanent nature. Once the annual supplement and the replacement volumes are published, they are reviewed by the Code commissioner, who prepares an annual codification bill to adopt the replacement volumes and annual supplement. This Court, however, has not considered the question whether this process has the same effect as a codification of the entire Code for the purpose of resolving conflicts between the Code and the original act."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 895 So. 2d 225 - Schoenvogel v. Venator Group Retail, Inc.