Starleper v. Hamilton’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 district · 7 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]he factual circumstances in these cases often vary. The language of the marital agreement differs, as does the nature of the violation by the decedent. Sometimes, he or she allows the policy to lapse entirely; sometimes the policy is replaced with a new policy having different terms or beneficiaries; sometimes, as here, the policy is maintained but the beneficiary is changed. Because a constructive trust is an equitable remedy, the court must consider all of the relevant circumstances in deciding whether it is an appropriate remedy in a given case. As is the rule generally with respect to equitable remedies, a constructive trust is not a matter of right, ex debito justitiae, but rests in the discretion of the court, to be imposed or denied according to the circumstances of the case....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Robinette v. Hunsecker

2. ““[m]any cases have dealt with situations similar to the present one, wherein a deceased party to a divorce permitted a life insurance policy to lapse by failing to pay the premiums, or changed the beneficiary to the policy, contrary to the requirements of the marital settlement agreement. ... In such cases, the agreement requiring the insured to maintain a particular beneficiary on a policy gives that beneficiary vested rights in the proceeds of that policy. Accordingly, courts have imposed constructive trusts on the proceeds of the deceased’s life insurance because the marital settlement agreement gives the former spouse or children named as beneficiaries in the binding agreement a superior equitable interest in the life insurance proceeds over later named beneficiaries.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Robinette v. Hunsecker

3. “[a] constructive trust is the remedy employed by a court of equity to convert the holder of the legal title to property into a trustee for one who in good conscience should reap the benefits of the possession of said property. The remedy is applied by operation of law where property has been acquired by fraud, misrepresentation, or other improper method, or where the circumstances render it inequitable for the party holding the title to retain it.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Robinette v. Hunsecker