161 W. Va. 557 - Coffindaffer v. Coffindaffer’s Empirical Analysis
1978
Citation profile
67 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 67 later decisions — most recently June 2017 · most notably 162 W. Va. 857 - Morningstar v. Black & Decker Manufacturing Co. (1979), 167 W. Va. 597 - Jenkins v. J. C. Penney Casualty Ins. (1981)
67 state decisions — followed in 18 states
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 Bushnell v. Bushnell · Thompson v. Thompson · Immer v. Risko · Klein v. Klein · 158 W. Va. 741 - Long v. City of Weirton
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 67 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“‘Of significance is the right to recover for the intentional tort. Our law before today practiced a cruel paradox. Under the guise of promoting family harmony, it permitted the wife beater to practice his twisted frustrations secure in the knowledge that he was immune from civil action except for a divorce, and that any criminal penalty would ordinarily be a modest fine. If nothing else, the knowledge of a monetary judgment with punitive damages may stay such violence.’”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“... We do an injustice not only to the intelligence of jurors, but to the efficacy of the adversary system, when we express undue concern over the quantum of collusive or meritless law suits. There is, to be sure, a difference between the ability to file a suit and to achieve a successful result. It is upon the anvil of litigation that the merit of a case is finally determined. Forged in the heat of trial, few but the meritorious survive.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“"[I]t is difficult to perceive how any law barring access to the courts for personal injuries will promote harmony. If this were a valid sociological consideration, the Legislature could orchestrate even greater harmony by abolishing the statute giving the right to divorce." p. 342.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Boblitz v. Boblitz · Davis v. Davis
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.