Watson v. Watson’s Empirical Analysis
1880
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 47 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 1975 · most notably Peters v. Bain (1890), Utermehle v. Norment (1905)
3 federal appellate · 40 state decisions — followed in 17 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 Hamblett v. Hamblett · Holt v. Rice · Brown v. Brown
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 47 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ In this commonwealth it has been decided, in accordance with the opinions of Lord Mansfield, Lord Loughborough, and Lord Redesdale, that the rule (that laid down by Chief Justice Shaw, as already stated) holds good at law as well as in equity. * * * But this doctrine, whether applied in practice on the common law or on the equity side of the court, depends not upon technical rules, but upon principles of equity and justice, and upon actual intention. An election made in ignorance of material facts is, of course, not binding when no other person’s rights have been affected thereby. So if a person, though knowing the facts, has acted in misapprehension of his legal rights, and in ignorance of his obligation to make an election, no intention to elect, and consequently no election, is to be presumed. This has been settled in England by a long series of authorities, of which it is sufficient to cite a few. (Citing cases.) “ "Where the law allows the probate of a will in either of two forms — in common form, ex parte, upon being presented by the executor, or in solemn form, upon the application of any person interested and notice to all others — a person who has received a legacy under a will proved in common form is permitted, on tendering back the amount to the executor, or bringing it into court, to contest the validity of the will, and compel it to be proved in solemn form. Bell v. Armstrong, 1 Add. Eccl. 365, 374, and cases cited. Hamblett v. Hamblett, 6 N. H. 333; Holt v. R”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Utermehle v. Norment““ It is now a well-settled rule in equity that, if any person shall take any beneficial interest under a will, he shall be held thereby to confirm and ratify every other part of the will; or, in other words, a man shall not take any beneficial interest under a will, and at the same time set up any right or claim of his own, even if otherwise legal and well founded, which shall defeat or in any way prevent the full effect and operation of every part of the will.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Utermehle v. Norment
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.