Van Meter v. Kelsey’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 57 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Next we consider laches as a bar to the relief claimed by plaintiff. The elements of laches as stated in 19 Am.Jur., Equity, Sec. 498 were cited by the chancellor. We agree that these elements are necessary to establish laches as a bar to relief. “The first of these elements is that there must be conduct on the part of the defendant, or on the part of one under whom he claims, giving rise to the situation of which complaint is made. In this case such conduct must be either the acts of adverse possession claimed to have been made by defendants’ predecessor and father or the filing of the deed from the other Kelsey heirs to defendants. Since this suit was instituted by the plaintiff in July 1954, some three and one half months after the deed to defendants was recorded, it is obvious that there could be no laches in bringing this suit as to that act. Therefore the acts or conduct to which the laches of plaintiff must relate are those of adverse possession on the part of the defendants’ predecessor and father. “While the failure of the defendants to prove adverse possession is not conclusive on the point, it is indicative of the fact that there were either insufficient acts or conduct to put the plaintiff on notice that his rights were being invaded or that there was insufficient proof of such conduct. “Under the facts of this case it does not appear to us that the conduct of the defendants’ predecessor was sufficient to require the plaintiff to act or be barred by laches. “The ”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brown v. Semple · 361 So. 2d 700 - The Florida Bar v. McCain

2. “(1) conduct on the part of the defendant giving rise to the situation of which complaint is made; (2) failure of the plaintiff, having had knowledge or notice of the defendant's conduct, to assert [her] rights by suit; (3) lack of knowledge on the part of the defendant that plaintiff will assert the right on which [s]he bases [her] suit; and (4) injury or prejudice to the defendant in event relief is accorded to the plaintiff.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Gaines v. Gaines · 738 So. 2d 459 - Garcia v. Guerra

3. “[H]ere, there was a question of correctness of the survey. In the case before us Kelsey signed a petition to the United States offering to cooperate in the resurveying of Section 17 and indicating that there was question about the boundary lines under the 1870 survey. [Van Meter] testified that it was agreed between him and Kelsey that if the new survey moved his line south Kelsey would move south also. There is nothing in the record to indicate that the fence in question was agreed upon as the boundary between the two properties. Any recognition that it was such a boundary appears to have been conditioned on the results of the survey of 1917, made not before, but after the fence was erected. The only evidence to show that the fence was regarded as the boundary between the properties was the existence of the fence itself. This is not sufficient.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Trevett v. Walker