Filer v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1893
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 21 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently December 2007 · most notably Criss v. City of Kent (1988), Burke v. Watts (1922)
2 federal appellate · 21 state decisions — followed in 11 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 Burns v. . Erben · Hamilton v. Smith · Holley v. Mix · Green v. Graves · Cochran v. Toher
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““. . . an officer making an arrest upon a warrant, or upon knowledge that a warrant is out, of one whose person is unknown to him, who can, under the circumstances, only act, if he act at all, upon photograph or description, or both, should be excused, if he acts honestly and prudently, making such inquiry and examination as the circumstances of each particular case afford him an opportunity to make. . . . De fendant was bound to use all reasonable means to avoid possible mistake, and the arrest of an innocent man. . . . He was not justified in relying upon a personal resemblance, as indicated by a comparison with a photograph, . . . especially as there was, within easy reach, means of identification.” -”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““ The general rule of law is that whoever does an illegal or wrongful act is answerable for all the consequences that ensue in the ordinary and natural course of events, though those consequences be immediately brought about by intervening agents, provided such agents were set in motion by the primary wrong-doer, or provided those acts causing the damage were the necessary or legal and natural consequence of the wrongful act.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Skinn v. Reutter
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.