Bierce v. Hanson’s Empirical Analysis
1951
Citation profile
24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently June 1975
24 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 White v. White · Travis v. Travis · Moloney v. Moloney · Kogler v. Kogler · Dodd v. Dodd
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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Appellant stresses the recognized rule that a mother, absent a finding of unfitness, ordinarily is .entitled to the custody of a child of tender years. We adhere to that rule. This court frequently has been confronted with such cases. It is unnecessary to review our numerous decisions on the subject. In Travis v. Travis, 163 Kan. 54 , 180 P. 2d 310 , it was well said: ' “ ‘Appellant, however, does direct our attention to other authorities, which she contends supports the proposition that where she has not been found to be unfit, the custody of a young child should be awarded to her. We have examined these authorities, but no purpose will be served in analyzing each of them. It is correct to say that unless the mother is shown to be unfit, she may properly be awarded custody of her minor child (19 C. J. 345; 17 Am. Jur. 517 ) but that premise does not necessarily result in a conclusion that an order giving custody to the father or providing for alternate periods of custody is erroneous.’ (p. 58.) “Obviously the foregoing statement is sound doctrine and must be the rule. If the rule were otherwise a trial court would be deprived entirely of exercising any discretion with respect to the best interests of the child where a child or children of tender years are involved.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Leach v. Leach““. . . [I]f the custody was not changed the child would continue to reside with his parents and he and his parents would continue to care for him.” (p. 425.)”
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.