Patrick v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

53 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 53 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““When the judgment or decree of the court below shall be reversed, the court shall proceed to render such judgment or decree as the court below should have rendered, except when it is necessary that some matter' of fact be ascertained or the damage to be assessed or the matter to be decreed is uncertain, in either of which cases the cause shall be remanded for a new trial in the court below.”.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Williams v. Safety Casualty Co. · St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. v. State

2. ““Clearly, where there has been a trial by jury, the1 Appellate Court could not, upon reversal upon the ground stated, render the judg ment — because it is sucb a judgment as the district court had the power to enter. Its duty, where the verdict is set aside because it is against the great weight of the evidence, is to order a new trial; and, by analogy, it seems that when the Court of Civil Appeals set aside the finding of the trial court for a like' reason the cause ought to be remanded. But the statute expressly directs this course ‘when there is any matter of fact to be ascertained.’ It is not the province of the Court of Civil Appeals to determine a question of fact in the first instance. Their jurisdiction is to set aside a finding by the court or jury, when contrary to the evidence or against such a preponderance of the evidence that in their opinion it ought not to stand.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. v. State

3. ““We merely hold, here, that there was evidence from which the deduction might legitimately be drawn that the parties agreed upon the proposals as modified by the last proposition of the defendant.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Feinberg v. Frank