Rees v. City of Watertown’s Empirical Analysis
86 U.S. 107 · 1873
Citation profile
40 federal appellate · 8 district · 52 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 195 later decisions (43 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2015 · most notably Mitchell v. W. T. Grant Co. (1974), Missouri v. Jenkins (1990)
40 federal appellate · 8 district · 52 state decisions — followed in 23 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.
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 195 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The remedies for the collection of a debt are essential parts of tbe contract of indebtedness, and those in existence at the time it is incurred must be substantially preserved to the creditor. * * * Of these tbe creditor must take notice, and, if all tbe remedies are preserved to him which were in existence when his debt was contracted, he has ho cause of complaint. * * * Tpe plaintiff invokes the aid of the principle that; all legal remedies having failed, the court of chancery must give him a remedy; that there is a wrong which cannot be righted elsewhere, and hence the right must be .sustained in chancery. The difficulty arises from too broad an application of a general principle. * * * A court of equity cannot, by avowing that there is a right but no remedy known to the law, create a remedy in violation of law, or even without the authority of law. It acts upon established principles not only, but through established channels. * • * The writ of mandamus is, no doubt, the regular remedy in cases like the present, and ordinarily it is adequate and its results are satisfactory. The plaintiff alleges, however, in the present case, that he has issued such a writ on three different occasions; that, by means of the aid afforded by the Legislature and by the devices and contrivances set forth in the bill, the writs have been fruitless; that, in fact, they afford him no remedy. The remedy is, in law and in theory, adequate and perfect. The difficulty is in its execution only. Th”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““These theories are vicious. They are based upon the idea that a refusal to pay an honest debt is justifiable because it would distress the debtor to pay it. A voluntary refusal to pay an honest debt is a high offense in a commercial community and is a just cause of war between nation.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Baccus v. Banks
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.