Cofield v. McClelland’s Empirical Analysis
83 U.S. 331 · 1872
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 32 later decisions (6 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 1931 · most notably Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States (1890), Stringfellow v. Cain (1878)
4 federal appellate · 17 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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““We think this is a case in which the presumption applies that the officer has done his duty, especially as no provision was made in the act for procuring evidence that notice had been published. The case comes within the ride so well settled in this court that the legal presumption is that the surveyor, register, governor, and secretary of state have done their duty in regard to the several acts to be done by them in granting lands, and therefore surveys and patents are always received as prima facie evidence of correctness.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““all persons failing to sign and deliver sucb statement within tbe time specified in this section shall be forever barred the right of claiming or recovering such lands or any interest therein, or any part, parcel or share therein in any court of law or equity.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““No language could be more explicit to make the failure to deliver the statement within the time specified a bar, an absolute bar, to the recovery of the same, however strong might be the equitable claim to the land so lost.””
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.