145 W. Va. 685 - Whiteman v. Robinson’s Empirical Analysis
1960
Citation profile
64 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 66 later decisions — most recently May 2015 · most notably 182 W. Va. 448 - Honaker v. Burnside (1989), 153 W. Va. 404 - State Ex Rel. Kiger v. Hancock (1969)
64 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 · Green v. Campbell · 129 W. Va. 765 - Pukas v. Pukas · Cunningham v. Barnes · 144 W. Va. 419 - State Ex Rel. Harmon v. Utterback
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 66 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 transferred, relinquished or surrendered such custody, the right of the parent to the custody of his or her infant child will be recognized and enforced by the courts.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ ‘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 parents depends upon which course will promote the welfare and best interest 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.’ Point 4, Syllabus, State ex rel. Harmon v. Utterback, [144] W.Va. [419] [ 108 S.E.2d 521 ].” Syllabus point 1, Davis v. Hadox, 145 W.Va. 233 , 114 S.E.2d 468 (1960).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“has never, by agreement or otherwise, transferred, relinquished or surrendered the custody of his child to the defendants but instead has in effect merely permitted them to have the temporary possession of the child subject to the right of the petitioner [the father] to terminate such possession at any time or, in any event, at the expiration of six months after the petitioner should remarry.”
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.