Spear v. Griffith’s Empirical Analysis
1877
Citation profile
3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently August 1937
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.
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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ Whether out of this arose a legal obligation upon the father to pay for the deficit, it is not necessary here to inquire. A moral obligation ivas beyond all doubt thus created. This moral obligation the vendor recognized in his life, and in consideration thereof promised appellee to make to him compensation out of his personal estate. The promise created a legal obligation, which appellee is entitled to eziforce against the executor, heirs or devisees.””
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.