Spitler v. Spitler’s Empirical Analysis
1883
Citation profile
23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently October 1974
23 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 Deenis v. Deenis
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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““As the right to permanent alimony, so far as it depends on general law, is founded upon the duty of the husband to support the wife, it therefore legally, as well as logically, follows, that when this duty ceases the right also ceases. Hence it is generally held, in the absence of statutory provisions controlling the' question, when the husband obtains a divorce on account of the misconduct of the wife, the latter will not be entitled to alimony. [2 Bishop on Marriage and Divorce (4th Ed.), secs. 376, 377.] Looking at the question on principle, the rule is certainly in harmony with other general rules governing the marital relation, as, for instance, the common-law duty of the husband to support the wife is not absolute. He is bound to support her at their common home, and not under another’s roof, unless his own improper conduct has forced her to seek shelter elsewhere.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Lay v. Lay““It was manifestly not the object of the Legislature, in adopting the provisions of the statute above cited, to abrogate the general principles or policy of the law relating to the subject of alimony, but rather to clothe the courts with power to mitigate occasional hardships that would otherwise occur on account of the inflexible rule that the wife is not entitled to alimony where the divorce is granted to the husband on account of her own misconduct. This modification of the general rule on the subject was intended to meet cases of hardship, and afford relief to the erring wife when demanded by mitigating circumstances, or the interest of such of the children as might, for prudential reasons, be committed to her custody for support or education. ’ ’”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Lay v. Lay
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.