Railroad Company v. County of Otoe’s Empirical Analysis
83 U.S. 667 · 1872
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 29 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 60 later decisions (12 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2009 · most notably Western Union Telegraph Company v. Pennsylvania Railroad Company (1904), Hackett v. Ottawa (1878)
3 federal appellate · 29 state decisions — followed in 17 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.
Relationships
Relies on Stewart v. Bd. of Super. of Polk County
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 60 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is true the burden of the duty may thus rest upon only a single political division, but the legislature has undoubted power to apportion a public burden among all the taxpayers of the state, or among those of a particular section. In its judgment, those of a single section may reap the principal benefit from a proposed expenditure, as from the construction of a road, a bridge, an almshouse, or a hospital.” (Page 676.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““Counties, cities, and towns exist only for the convenient administration of the government. Such organizations are instruments of the state, created to carry out its will.””
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.