158 W. Va. 343 - Hammack v. Wise’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
75 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 76 later decisions — most recently June 2013 · most notably 185 W. Va. 613 - In the Interest of Carlita B. (1991), 204 W. Va. 95 - Kessel v. Leavitt (1998)
75 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 Stanley v. Illinois · Meyer v. State of Nebraska · Skinner v. State of Oklahoma Williamson · 153 W. Va. 404 - State Ex Rel. Kiger v. Hancock · In Re Willis
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 76 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 infant child will be recognized and enforced by the courts.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage““Although the exercise of discretion by a trial court in awarding custody of a child will not ordinarily be disturbed, when it clearly appears that such discretion has been abused, the decision awarding custody will be reversed.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“Although this Court adheres to the “polar star” concept in child custody cases, it has refused to apply it in cases where the parents have not abandoned the child or have in no manner been proved to be unfit to have the care and custody of such child.”
2 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.