Bates v. Colpoys’s Empirical Analysis
141 F.2d 723 · 1944
Citation profile
20 federal appellate · 1 district · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 33 later decisions — most recently December 1972 · most notably Hopson v. Hopson (1955), Thomas F. Lundregan v. Mrs. G. Jeannette Lundregan (1958)
20 federal appellate · 1 district · 6 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 Pedersen v. Pedersen · Howard v. Howard · Rapeer v. Colpoys · 21 App. D.C. 475 - Lesh v. Lesh · Reed v. Reed
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 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The District Code [1940, § 16-415] authorizes suits for maintenance. It does not expressly authorize awards of maintenance and suit money pendente lite, but those awards were within the District Court’s discretion under its general equity powers. “However, the District Code provides that where a decree directs only the payment of money, ‘no defendant shall be imprisoned except in those cases especially provided for.’ The court has ‘no power’ to overstep that limitation. Imprisonment is ‘especially provided’ for enforcement of permanent maintenance, and also for enforcement of alimony ‘during the pendency of a suit for divorce.’ But the orders in this case are not in either of those categories. Imprisonment is not ‘expressly provided’ for enforcement of maintenance pendente lite. It is true that the code permits enforcement of interlocutory orders by the same process as final decrees. But an order requiring the payment of maintenance, even pendente lite, is a final and not an interlocutory order. It follows that the court had no power to imprison appellant.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.