Mackall v. Mackall’s Empirical Analysis
135 U.S. 167 · 1890
Citation profile
22 federal appellate · 8 district · 96 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 149 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 1980 · most notably Towson v. Moore (1899), 135 Cal. App. 2d 260 - Hubbard v. DaBell (1955)
22 federal appellate · 8 district · 96 state decisions — followed in 28 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 Richards v. Mackall · 26 N.J. Eq. 523 - In re the Probate of the Will of Gleespin · Mackall v. Richards
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 149 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““In this respect, reference was made to the long intimacy between father and son, the alleged usurpation by the latter of absolute control over the life, habits, and property of the former, efforts to prevent others during the last sickness of the father from seeing him, and the subjection of the will of the father to that of the son, manifest in times of health, naturally stronger in hours of sickness. A confidential relation between father and son is thus deduced, which, resembling that between client and attorney, principal and agent, parishioner and priest, compels proof of valuable consideration and bona fides in order to sustain a deed from one to the other. But while the relationships between the two suggest influence, do they prove undue influence? * * * That the relations between this father and his several children during the score of years preceding his death naturally inclined him towards the one and against the others is evident, and to have been expected. It would have been strange if such a result had not followed; but such partiality towards the one, and influence resulting therefrom, are not only natural, but just and reasonable, and come far short of presenting the undue Influence which the law denounces. Eight or wrong, it is to be expected that a parent will favor the child who stands by him, and give to him, rather than the others, his property. To defeat a conveyance under those circumstances, something more than the natural influence springing from such”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““A party who receives a parol gift of real estate, enters into possession and expends money in improvements thereon, presents equitable considerations which will xiphoid a decree establishing a subsequent conveyance as a confirmation of his, equitable title.””
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.