7 canonical passages across 4 cases, quoted by 49 opinions in total. These passages cluster together because the same opinions keep quoting them side by side — they state parts of one doctrine. The anchor passage is from Barr v. Town & Country Properties, Inc..
| # | Case | Flag | Canonical passage | Citers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barr v. Town & Country Properties, Inc. Anchor | green | “where the legislature has used words of a plain and definite import the courts cannot put upon them a construction which amounts to holding the legislature did not mean what it has actually expressed.” | 20 |
| 2 | Sink v. Commonwealth | green | “although the trial court's findings of historical fact are binding on appeal unless plainly wrong, we review the trial court's statutory interpretations and legal conclusions de novo.” | 8 |
| 3 | Watkins v. Hall | green | “we must . . . assume that the legislature chose, with care, the words it used when it enacted the . . . statute, and we are bound by those words as we interpret the statute.” | 4 |
| 4 | Watkins v. Hall | green | “we must ... assume that the legislature chose, with care, the words it used when it enacted the ... statute, and we are bound by those words as we interpret the statute.” | 4 |
| 5 | Sink v. Commonwealth | green | “we review the trial court's statutory interpretations and legal conclusions de novo.” | 3 |
| 6 | Home Beneficial Life Insurance v. Unemployment Compensation Commission | green | “elementary rule of statutory construction that every word in the statute must be given its full effect . . . .” | 3 |
A red or yellow flag on a member means the underlying case has negative treatment — for those, check the case page before relying on the passage.