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225 
opinion of a court in such jurisdiction has imperative author- 
ity in so far as it voices the principle actually dictated by 
the decision. This is the doctrine of the case, the proposition 
or propositions of law which usually follow a discussion and 
which are easily found and quoted. Any principles of law 
announced by a court on hypothetical cases put by way of 
illustration, or beyond the facts of the case, or upon collateral 
matters are only secondary authority. They are called dicta, 
or obiter dicta . So far as concerns authority they are in the 
same class with the opinions of text-writers and legal essayists 
and the doctrines of courts of other jurisdictions. An opinion 
is doctrine, and not dictum or dicta, not only where a court 
decides one point on one ground, but where it decides one 
point on more than one ground, or more than one point in 
favor of one party on different grounds, or one point one way 
and another another, or finds no errors where there are a 
number of suggested errors; but where there are discordant 
opinions, agreeing in result but differing as to grounds, or 
where an opinion ignores the point, or where there is no 
opinion at all it is difficult to find any doctrine for which the 
case stands. 
Evaluating the Doctrine of a Case. Even tho an opinion 
may be doctrine within its own jurisdiction there are various 
circumstances which may affect its weight, either as primary 
authority within such jurisdiction or as secondary authority 
outside of such jurisdiction. It is necessary, therefore, for the 
student or lawyer to put the proper value upon the opinion. 
The circumstances affecting the weight of an opinion may be 
classified as those relating to the court, whether trial, inter- 
mediate, or appellate, whether obscure or well known, whether 
poorly educated or well educated; those relating to the judge, 
whether learned or “famously ignorant” ; those affecting the 
report, whether official or unofficial ; those affecting thoroness 
of consideration, as lack of argument, or argument on only 
one side, or argument by weak counsel; those affecting the 
opinion, as failure to notice existing authorities, or opinion by 
a divided court ; those relating to the economic, political, and 
social conditions of the time; those relating to the judicial his- 
tory of the case, as whether it is a case of first impression, 
whether it has been modified or affirmed, whether it has 
been often cited, and whether it is in accord with the modern 
