Murdock v. Potter’s Empirical Analysis
1923
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently January 1980
1 federal appellate · 13 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 Taylor v. Allen · Succession of Vance · Lange v. Richoux · 33 La. Ann. 1099 - Succession of Hébert · Succession of Fortier
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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * Since, therefore, Act No. 54 of 1894 does not repeal or affect the right of a father or mother of illegitimate children to legitimate them by notarial act, and thereby give them the status of forced heirs, it would be inconsistent to hold that the act prevents the father or mother of such children, one of the parents being white and the other colored, from acknowledging them, and thereby giving the children the status of irregular heirs, since legitimation, when it may take place, not only creates a higher class of heirs than mere acknowledgment creates, but necessarily includes acknowledgment.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Plaintiff was born on March 20, 1889. His mother was Fannie Williams, a colored woman, who at the time of plaintiff's conception and birth was unmarried, and his father was Dave Murdock, a single man, of the Caucasian race. Plaintiff lived with his mother until her death, which occurred in the year 1896. The mother acknowledged plaintiff orally as her child, cared for him, and held him out to the world as such.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““The definition of the word ‘bastard’, found in Article 202 of the Civil Code, is qualified by Articles 203 and' 922, quoted above. When the three articles are construed together, it is clear that a mother may acknowledge her illegitimate child whether or not the father is willing to acknowledge or has acknowledged the child.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Succession of Falls
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.