Dingman v. Harvell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 6 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. “The primary rule of statutory construction is that the intention of the legislative body must prevail. The legislative intent or purpose is to be ascertained primarily from the natural and ordinary meaning of the language used, when read in the context of the entire statute, and without any forced or subtle construction to limit or extend the import of the language. City of Caryville v. Campbell County, 660 S.W.2d 510 (Tenn.App.1983), and cases cited therein. It is the Court’s duty to reconcile inconsistent or repugnant provisions of a statute to construe a statute so that no part will be inoperative superfluous, void or insignificant. Effect must be given to every word, phrase, clause and sentence of the act in order to achieve the legislative intent and the statute should be construeso that no section will destroy another. 660 S.W.2d at 512 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Gay v. City of Somerville