117 W. Va. 476 - Settle v. Settle’s Empirical Analysis
1936
Citation profile
28 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 28 later decisions — most recently May 2008 · most notably 182 W. Va. 57 - David M. v. Margaret M. (1989), 153 W. Va. 404 - State Ex Rel. Kiger v. Hancock (1969)
28 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 Goff v. Goff · Cariens v. Cariens · Cunningham v. Barnes · Norman v. Norman · 100 W. Va. 313 - Connor v. Harris
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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The law as to the custody of children has been greatly modified. Formerly, the right of the father to its custody was almost an inflexible rule. That rule forgot that a mother had a heart. The real owner of the child, be it even a baby, must give it up. But civilization, advanced thought and human kindness have bent this iron rule and opened the ears of the courts to the pleading of the true friend and owner of the child. The courts do not these days inexorably take from mothers their children of tender years even for the father, if the mother is a fit person, and has a home for them, but look at all the circumstances. The welfare of the child is the test. The welfare of a tender child is with the mother generally.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“* * * the father or mother of any minor child or children shall be entitled to the custody of the person of such child or children, and to the care of his or their education.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Stout v. Massie
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.