114 So. 2d 338 - Johnson v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““. . . while a parent has a natural God-given legal right to enjoy the custody, fellowship, and companionship of his offspring, that does not mean that under all circumstances a parent will be awarded the custody of his or her child against the claims of relatives or friends, as the case may be. In the final analysis it depends upon the ultimate welfare, or the best interest, of the child, which is the polestar or controlling principle to be observed.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. In the Interest of Pendarvis · 259 So. 2d 762 - Davidson v. Parker

2. ““ ‘ * * * But it is likewise the law that a decree in a divorce suit, fixing the custody of a child of the parents being divorced, whether based on a stipulation entered into by the parties and approved by the court, or whether entered by the court after adversary hearing and determination of a contested issue respecting the matter, is nevertheless a final decree of the court on the conditions then existing, and is not to be materially amended or changed afterward, unless on altered conditions shown to have arisen since the decree, or because of material facts bearing on the question of custody and existing at the time of the decree, but which were unknown to the court and then only for the welfare of the child. * *”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 244 So. 2d 518 - Bruggisser v. Bruggisser

3. “to enjoy the custody, fellowship, and companionship of his offspring”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Heffernan v. Goldman