Hosmer v. Wallace’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 federal appellate · 6 district · 15 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 58 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““To create a right of pre-emption there must be settlement, inhabitation, and improvement by the pre-emptor, conditions which cannot be met when the land is in the occupancy of another. Settlement, inhabitation, and improvement of one piece of land can confer no rights to another adjacent to it, which at the commencement of the settlement is in the possession and use of others, though upon a subsequent survey by the government it prove to be part of the same sectional subdivision. Under the pre-emption laws * * * the right to make a settlement is to be exercised on unsettled land; the right to make improvements is to be exercised on unimproved land; and the right to erect a dwelling house is to be exercised on vacant land; none of these things can be done on land when it is occupied and used by others.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Harvey v. Holles

2. ““The land within the boundaries of the grant was not open to settlement under the pre-emption laws, and his occupation from 1856 to his eviction in 1862 was that of a trespasser, and did not originate any rights which the government was bound to respect.” Hosmer v. Wallace, 97 U. S. 575 , 24 L. Ed. 1130 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Crawford v. Burr