Devlin v. . Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1882
Citation profile
7 federal appellate · 3 district · 122 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 137 later decisions — most recently January 1985 · most notably MacPherson v. . Buick Motor Co. (1916), Campo v. Scofield (1950)
7 federal appellate · 3 district · 122 state decisions — followed in 22 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.
Relationships
Relies on Thomas v. . Winchester · Coughtry v. . Globe Woolen Co. · Wright v. . New York Central Railroad Company · Blake v. . Ferris · Fuller v. . Jewett
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 137 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The liability of the builder or manufacturer for such defects is, in general, only to the person with whom he contracted. But, notwithstanding this rule, liability to third parties has been held to exist when the defect is such as to render the article in, itself imminently dangerous, and serious injury to any person using it is a natural and probable consequence of its áse.” i”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Moore v. Steljes
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.