Sells v. Commissioner’s Empirical Analysis
1948
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 1 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently June 1982
1 federal appellate · 1 district · 2 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 Colton v. Colton · Crellin v. Commissioner · Robinson v. Commissioner · Busby v. Lynn · Markle v. Commissioner
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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“if a general charitable purpose is manifest within the limits of the language [of the will], a broad and liberal construction should be applied to that language and the gift upheld”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““There is virtually complete agreement among the authorities that an otherwise charitable trust, looking to the benefit of the public generally, is not rendered private merely because the donor directs that relatives or descendants shall be preferred in the selection of beneficiaries.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Eberhardt Estate“It is a cardinal principle in the interpretation of wills that they be construed to effectuate the intention of the testator * * *”
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.