Case v. Beauregard’s Empirical Analysis
99 U.S. 119 · 1878
Citation profile
35 federal appellate · 24 district · 70 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 172 later decisions (13 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 1991 · most notably Hobbs v. McLean (1886), Burnet v. Leininger (1932)
35 federal appellate · 24 district · 70 state decisions — followed in 28 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 Russell v. Clark's Executors · Cornell v. Radway · Allen v. Center Valley Co. · Rice v. Barnard
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 172 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““No doubt the effects of a partnership belong to it so long as it continues in existence, and not to the individuals who compose it. The right of each partner extends only to a share of what may remain after payment of the debts of the firm and the settlement of its accounts. Growing out of this right, or rather included in it, is the right to have the partnership property applied to the payment of the partnership debts in preference to those of any individual partner. This is an equity the partners have as between themselves, and in qertain circumstances it inures to the benefit of the creditors of the firm. The latter are said to have a privilege or preference, sometimes loosely denominated a lien, to have the debts due to them paid out of the assets of a firm in course of liquidation, to the exclusion of the creditors of its several members. Their equity, however, is a derivative one. ' It is not held or enforceable in their own right. It is practically a subrogation to the equity of the individiral partner, to be made effective only through him. Hence, if he is not in a condition to enforce it, the creditors of the firm cannot be. Rice v. Barnard et al., 20 Vt. 479 [ 50 Am. Dec. 54 ]; Appeal of the York County Bank, 32 Pa. 446 . But so long as the equity of the partner remains in him, so long as he retains an interest in the firm assets, as a partner, a court of-equity will allow the creditors of the firm to avail themselves of his equity, and enforce, through it, the app”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““If, before the interposition of the court is ashed, the property has ceased to belong to the partnership, if by a bona fide transfer it has become the several property either of one partner or of a third person, the equities of the partners are extinguished, and consequently the derivative equities, of the creditors are at an end. It is therefore always essential to any preferential right of the creditors that there shall be property owned by the partnership when the claim for preference is sought to be enforced.” Francklyn v. Sprague, 121 U. S. 215 , 7 Sup. Ct. 951 , 30 L. Ed. 936 .”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The effects of a partnership belong to it so long as it continues in existence, and not to the individuals who compose it. The right of each partner extends only to a share of what may remain after payment of the debts of the firm and the settlement of its accounts. Growing out of this right, or rather included in it, is the right to have the partnership property applied to the payment of the partnership debts in preference to those of any individual partner. There is an equity the partners have as between themselves, and in certain circumstances it inures to the benefit of the creditors of the firm. The latter are said to have a privilege or preference, sometimes loosely denominated a lien, to have the debts due to them paid out of the assets of the firm in course of, liquidation, to the exclusion of the creditors of its several members. Their equity, however, is a derivative one. It is not held or enforceable in their own right. It is poetically a subrogation to the equity of the individual partner, to be made effective only through him. Hence, if he is not in a condition to enforce it, the creditors of the firm cannot be. * * ** It is indispensable, however, to such relief, when the creditors are,' as in the present case, simple contract creditors, that the partnership property should be within the control of the court and in the course of administration brought there by the bankruptcy of the firm, or by an assignment, or by the creation of a trust in some mode. This is b”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.