Debaillon v. Fuselier’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 state decisions

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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The decisions maintaining that a witness to a nuncupative will by public act is incompetent if he does not understand the language in which the will is dictated, or if he does not understand the language in which the will is written, are founded, not upon any express requirement of the Code with regard to the competency of witnesses, but upon the obvious and substantial reason that a witness to a nuncupative will must be able to compare what he hears the notary read to the testator with what he has heard the testator dictate to the notary. For the same reason — if not for better reason — the testator must be able to compare what the notary reads to him with what he has dictated to the notary. There is no opportunity for such comparison when the notary, having written the will in a language other than that in which it was dictated, translates it back into the language in which it was dictated, and thereby merely repeats to the testator what he dictated.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Succession of Centanni