Johnson v. Igleheart Bros.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 federal appellate · 3 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It is to be noted in the first place that the tax passed by the defendant on to the plaintiffs was buried in the contract price for the processed commodity. The defendant became subject to and liable for the payment of the tax. The tax was a heavy one under a flexible statute that permitted an increase or a decrease at the discretion of certain officers of the government. “The defendant as a precaution anticipated an increase and specifically provided that in such event, and independently of the contract price, the purchaser should then put the defendant in funds to meet such possible increase. On the other hand, the defendant agreed, because of the other alternative, that, in the event of a decrease in said tax, the several plaintiffs and others in like relationship should have the benefit thereof. Note the language: ‘Any decrease in the processing tax, as now or hereafter imposed by the United States, shall inure to the benefit of the buyer and be credited against the contract prices named in this contract.’ “This constituted an agreement between the parties as to the procedure to be followed if the tax should be decreased. The decrease was to ‘be credited against the contract prices named in this contract.’ “Undoubtedly it was then believed that the decrease might be authorized before the execution of the contract and the payment of the amount due thereon by the plaintiffs. The agreement did not provide for a refund if the contracts had been executed or fully carried out,”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. G. S. Johnson Co. v. N. Sauer Milling Co.

2. ““Plaintiff also seeks to sustain his position from the standpoint of equity, and urges that a denial of his claim will result, at his expense, in an unjust enrichment of the defendant. We do not think we are called upon to deal with such a theory. The contracts called for the delivery of the flour at various times over an extended period, and considering the nature of plaintiff’s business, it is not an unreasonable assumption that whatever amount was included in the contract price as processing tax, was passed on to those with whom it dealt. There is, of course, no allegation in the pleadings to this effect, but in the absence of an allegation to the contrary, how can this court say, as between the parties hereto, that the defendant has money, even if it be conceded that the same was collected as a processing tax, which belongs to the plaintiff?””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. G. S. Johnson Co. v. N. Sauer Milling Co.

3. “We are not here concerned with the fairness of the arrangement. The court has no power to make a new contract for the parties, and to strain at construction where the terms are clear would be the writing of an agreement into which the parties had not entered.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company v. The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company, and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company