going value
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 292 U.S. 290 - Dayton Power & Light Co. v. Public Utilities Commission · 1934Most cited · 434 citing opinions
Going value is not something to be read into every balance sheet as a perfunctory addition. 'It calls for consideration of the history and circumstances of the particular enterprise.
How the Supreme Court has restated “going value”
Each Supreme Court definition of “going value,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “going value”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “going value” — 1,069 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 4 definitions, chronological · 1915–1934
- ORIGINAL
Going value,' or 'going concern value,' i.e., the value which inheres in a plant where its business is established, as distinguished from one which has yet to establish its business. That there is an element of value in an assembled and established plant, doing business and earning money, over one not thus advanced, is self-evident. This element of value is a property right, and should be considered in determining the value of the property, upon which the owner has a right to make a fair return when the same is privately owned although dedicated to public use.
going concern value
- 1932·287 U.S. 178 - Interstate Commerce Commission v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad[p27]· cited 154×
Not infrequently the value of these intangibles will be an aggregate made up of elements too deeply interpenetrated for any specific figure to be set opposite to one of them dissevered from the others. What is true of 'going value' is true of roadbeds and stations, of trackage rights and rights in terminals. As soon as one passes beyond an appraisal of the cost, the increments or the deductions involve estimates of relation, the parts being worthless or nearly so unless adapted to the whole.
Going value, of course, is not to be confused with good will, and is not to be 'read into every balance sheet as a perfunctory addition'.