Scott v. Townsend’s Empirical Analysis
1914
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 96 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 99 later decisions — most recently August 2012 · most notably Long v. Long (1939), Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Reese (1979)
2 federal appellate · 96 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 Josephine Throckmorton v. Washington Holt · McElroy v. Phink, Administrator · Robinson v. Stuart · Kennedy v. Upshaw · Patton v. Cox
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 99 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The law recognizes undue influence in the procurement of a will as a distinct ground for its avoidance. In its essential elements it has no real relation to the ground of mental incapacity. Testamentary incapacity implies the want of intelligent mental power, while undue influence bespeaks in itself the existence of a mind of strength sufficient to make a valid will if unhindered by the dominant influence, and such a mind as would have produced a valid will but for the coercion or restraint to which it was subjected.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Cruz v. Prado““The issue is proved only when free agency is shown to have been supplanted, which means a testament made under such subjection or surrender of the natural freedom of will and action as that it speaks the mind of another.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Norton v. Houston“as tend to reveal it by being in themselves expressive of his mental state.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.