Fuller v. Nelle’s Empirical Analysis
1936
Citation profile
1 district · 28 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 29 later decisions — most recently December 1981 · most notably 33 Cal. 2d 717 - McClure v. Donovan (1949), 37 Cal. 2d 672 - Dabney v. Philleo (1951)
1 district · 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 Estate of Rolls · Johnson v. Williams · Brazil v. Silva · In Re Estate of Silva · 9 Cal. App. 462 - Clapp v. Vatcher
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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"A probate court whose jurisdiction is limited to the determination of the issue whether the instrument propounded is the last will of the decedent lacks power to enforce an agreement between two testators to make wills which are mutual and reciprocal in their provisions. * * * Generally speaking, the remedy of a person injured by the violation of a contract for the execution of wills containing reciprocal bequests and bequests to third persons effective upon the death of the surviving testator is not to be had in a contest of the probate of the will which constitutes the violation of which complaint is made, since, in the absence of statute, the only issue on a contested probate is whether the paper propounded is `the last will of the decedent.' Similarly, a contract jointly to execute a single will which is reciprocal in the bequests made cannot be asserted as a ground for contesting the probate of a later revoking will. It is not a ground of contest to the probate of a will that it violates an agreement to make wills containing reciprocal provisions or revokes a former will made in pursuance of such agreements, and the probate court cannot refuse to probate a will on the ground that it was made in violation of such an agreement, * * *."”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“"`A will, though it may be irrevocable as a contract, is none the less revocable as a will, and in case such a will is revoked, the injured party cannot contest the later will in the probate court on that ground or insist on the probate of the earlier will, but is remitted to an independent action at law or in equity to enforce whatever rights he may have.'"”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“... I can depend upon my wife to carry out our mutual wishes ...”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Lich v. Carlin
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.