Nixon v. Grace’s Empirical Analysis
1911
Citation profile
18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently February 1987
18 state decisions
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 Spencer's Appeal From Railroad Commissioners · Bladen v. Philadelphia · Humphries v. State
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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In determining whether the words shall have a mandatory or directory effect ascribed to them, the purposes of the act, the ends to be accomplished, the consequences that may result from one meaning or the other, and the context are to be considered. In the application of these rules to the statute under consideration, we have reached the conclusion that the language, ‘the court shall forthwith make an order for process to be issued thereon,’ is not mandatory upon the circuit court but is directory merely.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Upon an indictment being found, if the defendant is not in custody or on bail, the court shall forthwith make an order for process to be issued thereon, designating whether it shall be for arresting or summoning the defendant; and if for arresting the defendant, and the offense charged is bailable, the sum in which he may be admitted to bail shall be fixed.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.