Smith v. Guest’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A claim will be collaterally estopped only if the same [factual] issue was presented in both cases, the issue was litigated and decided in the first suit, and the determination was essential to the prior judgment.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brautigam v. Blankfein · Rogers v. Morgan

2. “The issue here is not whether the Family Court has infringed [the biological mother's] fundamental parental right to control who has access to [the child] by awarding [the non-biological mother] co-equal parental status. Rather, the issue is whether [the non-biological mother] is a legal 'parent' of [the child] who would also have parental rights to [the child]—rights that are co-equal to [the biological mother's]. This is not a case, like Troxel, where a third party having no claim to a parent-child relationship (e.g., the child's grandparents) seeks visitation rights. [The non-biological mother] is not 'any third party.' Rather, she is a (claimed) de facto parent who (if her claim is established, as the Family Court found it was) would also be a legal 'parent' of [the child]. Because [the non-biological mother], as a legal parent, would have a co-equal 'fundamental parental interest' in raising [the child], allowing [the non-biological mother] to pursue that interest through a legally-recognized channel cannot unconstitutionally infringe [the biological 34 mother's] due process rights. In short, [the biological mother's] due process claim fails for lack of a valid premise.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In re M.F.

3. “[njo Court decision based upon a finding that Delaware does not recognize de facto parent status shall have collateral estop-pel or res judicata effect.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Lp v. Lf