Hamilton v. Hamilton’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

20 state decisions

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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The mother’s position on appeal is that since the evidence shows that both parents are equally fit and proper persons and each has a suitable home it was an abuse of the court’s discretion to award custody of a boy of tender years to the father. In taking this position the mother relies upon that portion of section 138, Civil Code, which provides that ‘other things being equal, if the child is of tender years, it should be given to the mother. ’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 115 Cal. App. 2d 551 - Frazier v. Frazier

2. ““This section [Civ. Code, § 138, subd. 2] does not give the mother the absolute right to the custody of a child of tender years. The qualifying clause, ‘But other things being equal,’ still leaves a large measure of discretion with the trial court. If the court finds that other things are not equal, as it evidently did here, and there is any substantial evidence to support such a finding, our inquiry is at an end.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 118 Cal. App. 2d 271 - Scott v. Barnes