14 E.H. Smith 584 - Dobie v. . Armstrong’s Empirical Analysis
1899
Citation profile
70 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 70 later decisions — most recently February 1974 · most notably In Re Proving the Will of Heaton (1918), Hagan v. . Sone (1903)
70 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedDobie v. Armstrong
Relationships
Relies on Dwight v. . Germania Life Ins. Co. · Horn v. . Pullman · In Re the Probate of the Will of White
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 70 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Ordinarily the burden of proof is upon the party propounding a will, but section 2653a of the Code of Civil Procedure, which is the authority for the maintenance of this action, places the burden upon the defendants, who contest the validity of the will, of establishing the testamentary incapacity of the testator. The probate of the will by the surrogate is made prima facie evidence of its due execution and validity. The affirmative was with this appellant upon the question of the case—whether a delusion or an insane belief existed in the testator’s mind with respect to his domestic relations, and especially with respect to his son, which incapacitated him from validly willing away his estate. The burden was upon him to adduce evidence which would be sufficient to uphold a verdict that the testator was the victim of such a delusion with respect to his son as to prevent his affections from operating in their natural channel. He assumed the burden of showing that there was no cause for his father’s changed feelings in facts or in actual circumstances,, and therefore that they could only have had their origin in some figment of the brain.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““Such cases are fraught with the gravest consequences, and I do not believe that a solemn testamentary disposition of property should be left to the decision of a jury upon mere surmise, or upon inferences from facts which are as consistent with the one view as with the other.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Phillips v. Phillips
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.