Ricks v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis
1924
Citation profile
24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently January 2018
24 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 Gordon v. McDougall · Bean v. Commonwealth · Heard v. Drennen · Grant v. Spann
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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The appointment of an executor by a testator in his will is not absolute, since the right of the one named to act is restricted by statute, and such nomination cannot be final, since the nominee may either accept the office or refuse to serve. But, if the one named in the will as executor is qualified and willing to act, the court must appoint him to the office. If the nominee accepts the appointment under the will, and does not waive his rights by failing to take the proper steps as required by statute for proving the will, the court must, after proper proceedings, appoint him to the office unless he be shown to be incompetent or disqualified for some legal cause. The testator has the right to select as executor of his last will any one whom he may desire and the fitness of the one selected by the testator is not a matter which the court can investigate except in the cases where the law has specially so provided.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“If qualified and willing to act, the nominee of the testator must be appointed executor. It has, however, been held that, where conditions after the death of the testator had so changed that, had he anticipated them, he unquestionably would have made a different choice, the court in its discretion could refuse to appoint the one named in the testator's will . The purpose of the law in securing this right manifestly is to enable the testator to control the disposition of the estate and to name the person who shall exercise this power and right.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.