Van Loan v. Van Loan’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
184 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 186 later decisions — most recently December 2020 · most notably 78 Ill. App. 3d 653 - In Re Marriage of Hunt (1979), Deering v. Deering (1981)
184 state decisions — followed in 20 states
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 15 Cal. 3d 838 - In Re Marriage of Brown · 17 Cal. 2d 775 - French v. French · Cearley v. Cearley · Yeazell v. Copins · 85 Wash. 2d 364 - Wilder v. Wilder
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 186 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““. . . [a]n employee, and thereby the community, does indeed acquire a property right in unvested pension benefits upon performance under the contract. Thus, to the extent that such a property right is earned through community effort, it is property divisible by the court upon dissolution of the marriage, 116 Ariz. at 274 , 569 P.2d at 216 .”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Considering whether that contractual right is a form of property, we reject the proposition that an employee has no more than a mere “expectancy” prior to the maturation of his pension rights. As stated by the California Supreme Court in In re Marriage of Brown [ 15 Cal.3d 838 , 126 Cal.Rptr. 633 , 544 P.2d 561 (1976)], supra: “The term expectancy describes the interest of a person who merely foresees that he might receive a future beneficance, such as the interest of an heir apparent [citations omitted], or of a beneficiary designated by a living insured who has a right to change the beneficiary. [citations omitted] As these examples demonstrate, the defining characteristics of an expectancy is that its holder has no enforceable right to his beneficence.” [citations omitted] [Emphasis added]”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Pangburn v. Pangburn“We start with the proposition that pension plans are a form of deferred compensation to employees for services rendered. [Citations omitted] As compensation, any portion of the plan earned during marriage is property of the community. [Citation omitted] 116 Ariz. at 273 , 569 P.2d at 215 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.