Goddard v. Foster’s Empirical Analysis
84 U.S. 123 · 1872
Citation profile
49 federal appellate · 3 district · 18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 91 later decisions (12 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2014 · most notably Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc. (1995), Great Northern Railway Co. v. Merchants Elevator Co. (1922)
49 federal appellate · 3 district · 18 state decisions — followed in 11 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 Foster v. Goddard
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 91 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[I]t is well-settled law that written instruments are always to be construed by the court .... ”); see also Meredith v. Picket, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 573, 575 , 6 L.Ed. 163 (1824) (interpreting a deed,”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Although it is the province of the court to construe written instruments, yet when the effect of such instruments depends, not merely on the construction and meaning of the instruments, but upon collateral facts in pais and extrinsic circumstances, the inferences of fact to be drawn from them are to be left to the jury.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“are not denied the same light and information the parties enjoyed when the contract was executed, but they may acquaint themselves with the persons and circumstances that are the subjects of the statements in the written agreement”); Brown & Co. v. McGran, 39 U.S. (14 Pet.) 479, 493, 10 L.Ed. 550 (1840) (”
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.