Howell v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis
89 F. 556 · 1898
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 2 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 19 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 1955
6 federal appellate · 2 district · 2 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 St Anthony Falls Water-Power Co v. Board of Water Com'rs of City of St Paul Minn Minneapolis Mill Co · Basey v. Gallagher · Osgood v. El Dorado Water & Deep Gravel Mining Co.
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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The water in the stream, which has a propensity to seek its level, and will continue in its current to the sea, is in strict reality the veritable thing in controversy. It knows no imaginary state or county lines, and is a thing in which no man has a property until captured; to be applied to a beneficial use. The right of appropriation is; recognized in law, which means the right of diversion and use. It is the right, not to any specific water, but to some definite quantity of that which may at any time be running in the stream. So the right acquired by an appropriation includes the right to have the water flow in the stream to the point of diversion. The fact of a state line intersecting the stream does not, within itself, impinge upon that right. In other words, the appropriation may still be acquired, although the stream is interstate, and not local to one state; nor will the mere fact that the stream has its source in one state authorize a diversion of all the water thereof as against an earlier and prior appropriator across the line in another state. On the contrary, one who has acquired a right to the water of a stream by prior appropriation, in accordance with the laws of the state where made, is protected in such right as against subsequent appropriators, though the latter withdraw the water within the limits of a different state.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Bean v. Morris““The federal government is not restrained in the disposal of its lands by .state laws or state lines. Its laws upon this subject apply to the lands in one state as well as another. It has made grants of land extending through several states. The state governments cannot restrict it in the primary disposal of its lands. If It may sell and dispose of its land as It may deem proper, there is no reason why It may not sell as a part thereof an incident thereto, such as the use of water flowing over the same.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Anderson v. Bassman
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.