131 Md. App. 271 - Chimes v. Michael’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

32 state decisions

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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “As we read Dietz today, the Court of Appeals reached its conclusion based on the alimony-like effect of a scheme of monthly payments, rather than on that scheme’s actual nomenclature. In workers’ compensation, alimony, and condemnation cases, which the Court found analogous to the facts in Dietz, the defendant enters the litigation with a clear understanding that he owes a specific statutory or common law obligation to the plaintiff, whether it be the cost of medical treatment, support for necessities, or the fair market value of land. See, e.g., Bethlehem Steel Co. v. Mayo, 168 Md. 410, 413 , 177 A. 910 (1935) (workers’ compensation case, stating that acquiescence rule does not apply “where the right to the benefit received is conceded by the opposition party, or where the appellant would be entitled thereto in any event”). Here, the large lump sum award already enjoyed by Chimes does not have the support-like effect of the payments made in Dietz. The analogy is ineffective. Dietz is also distinguishable from the present case in that Mrs. Dietz only accepted a small portion of the judgment before she appealed.... Finally, although Dietz considerably broadens the exception stated in Lewis [7] to the acquiescence rule, it does not, we believe, eviscerate that rule. If we were to construe Dietz as [the husband in] Chimes would like us to, we would open the floodgates for divorce litigants to collect on money judgments, then return to the court via the appellate process to ask f”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 191 Md. App. 625 - Cochran v. GRIFFITH ENERGY SERVICE, INC.

2. “Although the child support guidelines apply in most cases, the trial court may exercise discretion in setting the basic support obligation when the combined adjusted actual income of the parents exceeds $10,000 per month. The legislative history and case law do not obscure the fact that the legislature left the task of awards above the guidelines to the chancellor precisely because such awards defied any simple mathematical solution. Allowing judicial discretion promotes the policy behind the guidelines, that, even at very high income levels, “a child’s standard of living should be altered as little as possible by the dissolution of the family. ” In cases such as this one, where the guidelines do not apply, calculation of child support falls within the chancellor’s sound discretion. The chancellor will “examine the needs of the child in light of the parents’ resources and determine the amount of support necessary to ensure that the child’s standard of living does not suffer because of the parents’ separation.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 180 Md. App. 295 - Maness v. Sawyer

3. ““[A]t very high income levels, the percentage of income expended on children may not necessarily continue to decline or even remain constant because of the multitude of different options for income expenditure available to the affluent. The legislative judgment was that at such high income levels judicial discretion is better suited than a fixed formula to implement the guidelines’ underlying principle that a child’s standard of living should be altered as little as possible by the dissolution of the family.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 153 Md. App. 358 - Malin v. Mininberg