Holyoke Company v. Lyman’s Empirical Analysis
82 U.S. 500 · 1872
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 4 district · 60 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 113 later decisions (16 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2006 · most notably Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co. (1911), Lawton v. Steele (1894)
4 federal appellate · 4 district · 60 state decisions — followed in 23 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 113 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Ownership of the banks and bed of the stream, as before remarked, gives to the proprietor the exclusive right of fishery, opposite his land. * * * “Undoubtedly each proprietor of the land adjoining such a river or stream has in that State (Massachusetts) a several or exclusive right of fishery in the river immediately before his land, to the middle of the river, and may prevent all others from participating in it, and will have a right of action against any who shall usurp the exercise of it without his consent.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Rivers, though not navigable . . . may be and often are regarded as public rights, subject to legislative control, ... as the source for furnishing a valuable supply of fish, suitable for food and sustenance. Such . . . fisheries of the kind, . . . are also so far public rights that the legislature of the State may ordain and establish regulations to prevent obstructions to the passage of the fish, . . .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“‘•Wherever privileges are granted to a corporation, and the grant comes under revision in the courts, such privileges are to be strictly construed against the corporation and in favor of the public, and that nothing paseos but what is granted in clear and explicit terms.””
1 later decision 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.