Lesser v. Lesser’s Empirical Analysis
1952
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently March 2009
4 federal appellate · 17 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 Commercial Molasses Corp. v. New York Tank Barge Corp. · Mackall v. Mackall · American Insurance v. Naylor · Zink v. Carlile · Martinez v. Martinez
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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"This confidential relationship raised a presumption against the validity of the deed signed by Jacob, and placed the burden of going forward with the evidence upon the defendant. If she had offered no evidence the presumption thus raised, we have held in Zink v. Carlile, 126 Colo. 208 , 248 P.2d 306 , would have been sufficient to entitle plaintiff to favorable judgment. But defendant did introduce evidence rebutting that presumption.... As to what happens when evidence is produced rebutting what has been termed a presumption of invalidity of the conveyance is well expressed in Wigmore on Evidence (3rd Ed.), vol. IX, section 2491, subparagraphs 2 and 3, pages 289, 290: `2. Nevertheless, it must be kept in mind that the peculiar effect of a presumption "of law" (that is, the real presumption) is merely to invoke a rule of law compelling the jury to reach the conclusion in the absence of evidence to the contrary from the opponent. If the opponent does offer evidence to the contrary (sufficient to satisfy the judge's requirement of some evidence), the presumption disappears as a rule of law, and the case is in the jury's hands free from any rule. `3. It is therefore a fallacy to attribute (as do some judges) an artificial probative force to a presumption, increasing for the jury the weight of the facts, even when the opponent has come forward with some evidence to the contrary. * * *'" (Emphasis in original.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“confidential relationship raised a presumption against the validity of the [transaction], and placed the burden of going forward with the evidence upon the defendant”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Krueger v. Ary
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.