Merrill v. Petty’s Empirical Analysis
83 U.S. 338 · 1872
Citation profile
6 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 17 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 1905
6 district · 3 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.
Relationships
Relies on Lynn v. Columbian Turnpike Co.
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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ The distinction constantly maintained is this : Where the plaintiff sues for an amount exceeding $2,000, and the ad damnum exceeds $2,000, if by reason of any erroneous, ruling of the court below, the plaintiff recovers nothing, or less than $2,000, there the sum claimed by the plaintiff is the sum in controversy for which a writ of error will lie. But if a verdict is given against the defendant for a less sum than $2,000, and judgment passes against him accordingly, there it is obvious that there is, on the part of the defendant, nothing in controversy beyond the sum for which the judgment is given ; and consequently he is not entitled to any .writ of error. We cannot look beyond the time of the judgment in order to ascertain whether a writ of error lies or not.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Hilton v. Dickinson
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.