Martin v. Dieringer’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “This case involves an estate that remained open for more than seventeen years. William Martin died in 1985. He was survived by two children, Donna, then age fourteen, and Darrel, then age eighteen. His will left everything (after payment of debts and certain expenses) in equal shares to the children, in trust. James Dieringer ("Dieringer" or "PR") was the personal representative, and with his wife Naney Dieringer, co-trustee of the trust. The assets of the estate included a house in Fairbanks, a lot on Summit Lake, a motor home, some snowmachines, an escrow, and some life insurance. The net value of the estate was less than $250,000. [[Image here]] By 1997 the only remaining assets of the estate were the Summit Lake lot, which was subject to a mortgage, and a loan Dieringer had made to a company that he owned a half interest in. The children agreed that Darrel would receive the Summit Lake property and Donna would receive more cash from the estate. Darrel contacted Dieringer a number of times concerning the Summit Lake property and closing the estate. Dieringer informed Darrel that he wanted to buy the Summit Lake property for $15,000. Darrel had received a substantially larger offer for the property and was reluctant to agree to sell to Dieringer at Dieringer's price. When this cccurred Dieringer took the position that unless [the] Summit Lake [property was] sold to him he would charge the estate fees for his services. Further, he stated that the proceeds of a $50,000 life i”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Dieringer v. Martin

2. “Dieringer breached his fiduciary duties as a trustee. He engaged in self-dealing when he made a loan with the estate assets to a company in which he had an interest. He improperly, albeit equivocally, claimed that the $50,000 life insurance proceeds were his individually rather than as trustee, and he engaged in self-dealing when he attempted to purchase the Summit Lake property for less than fair market value. The breaches were intentional and are equivalent to bad faith.[ 29 ]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Dieringer v. Martin

3. “[flor the foregoing reasons, we ... REMAND this case for reconsideration of attorney's fees and fees of the personal representative in light of the conclusions expressed herein.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Dieringer v. Martin