Merrill v. Hodson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 federal appellate · 2 district · 23 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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ ‘In neither case does the transaction, in so far as it involves the supply of food or drink to customers, partake of the character of a sale of goods.. . . . The customer does not become the owner of the food set before him, or of that portion which is carved for his use, or of that which finds a place upon his plate, or in side dishes set about it. No designated portion becomes his. He is privileged to eat, and that is all. The uneaten food is not his. He cannot do what he pleases with it. That which is set before him or placed at his command is provided to enable Mm to satisfy his immediate wants, and for no other purpose. He may satisfy those wants; but there he must stop. He may not turn over unconsumed portions to others at his pleasure, or carry away such portions. The true essence of the transaction is service in the satisfaction of a human need or desire — ministry to a bodily want. A necessary incident of tMs service or ministry is the consumption of the food required. This consumption involves destruction, and nothing remains of what is consumed to wMch the right of property can be said to attach. Before consumption title does not pass; after consumption there remains nothing to become the subject of title. . . . The title to food never passes as a result of an ordinary transaction of supplying food to a guest.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Grays Harbor Commercial Co.

2. ““As an innkeeper does not lease Ms rooms, so lie does not sell tbe food lie supplies to Ms guests. It is Ms duty to supply such food as the guest needs, and the corresponding right of the guest is to consume the food he needs and to take no more. Having finished his meal, he has no right to take food from the table, even the uneaten portion of the food supplied to him; nor can he claim a certain portion of food as his own, to be handed over to another in case he chooses not to consume it himself. The title to food never passes as a result of an ordinary transaction of supplying food to a guest; or as it was quaintly put'in one old case ‘he does npt sell but utters his provision.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Valeri v. Pullman Co.