McMechen v. McMechen’s Empirical Analysis
1881
Citation profile
67 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 68 later decisions — most recently September 2013 · most notably Kerr v. Lunsford (1888), Ditton v. Hart (1911)
67 state decisions — followed in 14 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 Delafield v. . Parish · Comstock v. Hadlyme Ecclesiastical Society · Fairchild v. Bascomb · Southern Railroad v. Kendrick · Evans v. Arnold
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 68 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[i]f one having testamentary capacity is unable from any physical cause to write his name to his will, another person may steady his hand and aid him in so doing; and it is not necessary to prove an express request from the testator for such assistance; it may be inferred from the circumstances of the case.”
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.