Allen & Co. v. Ferguson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 48 state decisions

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 56 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““All the authorities agree in this, that the promise by which a discharged debt is revived must be clear, distinct, and unequivocal.- It may be an absolute or a conditional promise, but in either case it must be unequivocal, and the occurrence of the condition must be averred if the promise be conditional. The rule is different in regard to the defense of the statute of limitations against a debt barred by the lapse of time. In that case, acts or declarations recognizing the present existence of the debt have often been held to take a case out of the statute. Not so in the class of cases we are considering. Nothing is sufficient to revive a discharged debt unless the jury are authorized by it to say that there is the expression by the debtor of a clear intention to bind himself to the payment of the debt. Thus, partial payments do not operate as a new promise to pay the residue of the debt. The payment of interest will not revive the liability to pay the principal, nor is the expression of an intention to pay the debt sufficient.” See also 6 Am. Jur., Bankruptcy, p. 832, sec. 532; Anno. 75 A. L. R. 580.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Lupinski v. Fischer

2. ““A promise inferred from the following words in the letter of the defendant, ‘Be satisfied; I intend to pay all my just debts; .all will be right betwixt me and my just ■ creditors,’ is not a promise to pay plaintiff’s debt.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Irwin v. Hunnewell