144 W. Va. 419 - State Ex Rel. Harmon v. Utterback’s Empirical Analysis
1959
Citation profile
41 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 41 later decisions — most recently May 2011 · most notably 182 W. Va. 448 - Honaker v. Burnside (1989), 153 W. Va. 404 - State Ex Rel. Kiger v. Hancock (1969)
41 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 131 W. Va. 302 - State Ex Rel. Lipscomb v. Joplin · 133 W. Va. 501 - Pugh v. Pugh · Green v. Campbell · 129 W. Va. 765 - Pukas v. Pukas · Cariens v. Cariens
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 41 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A parent has the natural right to the custody of his or her infant child and, unless the parent is an unfit person because of misconduct, neglect, immorality, abandonment, or other dereliction of duty, or has waived such right or by agreement or otherwise has permanently transferred, relinquished or surrendered such custody, the right of the parent to the custody of his or her child will be recognized and enforced by the courts.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“When a parent, by agreement or otherwise, has transferred, relinquished or surrendered the custody of his or her child to a third person and subsequently demands the return of the child, the action of the court in determining whether the custody of the child shall remain in such third person or whether the child shall be returned to its parent depends upon which course will promote the welfare and best interests of the child; and the parent will not be permitted to reclaim the custody of the child unless the parent shows that such change of custody will materially promote the moral and physical welfare of the child.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“When a parent has transferred to another the custody of his infant child, by fair agreement, which has been acted on by such other person, to the manifest interest and welfare of the child, the parent will not be permitted to reclaim the custody of the child, unless he can show that a change of custody will materially promote his child's welfare, moral and physical.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Lucyk v. Brawner
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.