Fitzpatrick v. Simonson Bros. Manufacturing Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1902
Citation profile
28 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 29 later decisions — most recently October 1977 · most notably In re Clerk of Lyon County Courts' Compensation (1976), Anway v. Grand Rapids Railway Co. (1920)
28 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 Grignon's Lessee v. Astor · Ladd v. Weiskopf · Davis v. Hudson · Greenwood v. Murray · State v. Baldwin
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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““We can imagine no other sensible ground upon which the Legislature could have made the distinction in the relief it intended to give or that could have justified the lawmakers in saying this is a wholesome remedy only where its benefits are to accrue to those whose ancestors die five years after the law takes effect, but it is tio be withheld from very many otherwise within the benefits we bestow. The reasons are against, rather than in favor of. such an unjust discrimination. * * * Be this as it may, the word ‘shall’ is often used in remedial statutes in a general sense, including both the past and the future, and should be so considered where a more restricted interpretation is not required. We therefore hold that' chapter 157, supra, being intended to give a remedy for existing rights, must be liberally construed, in order to accomplish the beneficial purpose for which it was enacted, and should be applied to rights and obligations that accrued before its enactment, as well as those to accrue thereafter.’ ””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Harris v. Gale““When any person shall die intestate, seised of an estate of inheritance in any lands, * * * where administration shall not have been granted for five years from the death of the decedent, * * * any heir or grantee of an heir may institute proceedings to obtain a decree of heirship of distribution.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Harris v. Gale““* * * The probate forum is often unadvisedly spoken of as of limited jurisdiction, but the powers of this court are not only general, but plenary, in cases where it is authorized to act, and the term ‘limited jurisdiction,’ when appropriate, cannot be used in any restrictive or narrow sense.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.