Adams v. Prather’s Empirical Analysis
1917
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 32 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 40 later decisions — most recently May 2015 · most notably Estate of Rath (1937), 132 Cal. App. 2d 343 - Ireland v. Pacific Home (1955)
6 federal appellate · 32 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 Marti v. Anderson · Hardy v. Mayhew · In Re Estate of Tooley · Metropolis Theater Co. v. City of Chicago · Pingrey v. Rulon
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 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““While the first dispositive clause of the will, namely, ‘I give all the property of which I die possessed to my husband Thomas Prather. . .,’ is clear and, taken alone, admits of no construction other than that an absolute disposal of her estate to him was intended, the second dispositive clause, to wit, ‘Upon the death of my husband the said Thomas Prather one-half of the unexpended portion of my estate bequeathed to my husband to be given to my niece Julia Adams . . ., the other one-half to be given to the surviving daughters of my brother Edson F. Adams in equal shares, ’ is equally clear and distinct. (Estate of Tooley, 170 Cal. 164 [ 149 P. 574 , Ann.Cas. 1917B 516].) Hence, unless irreconcilable with the first clause, it should be construed in relation therewith. Read in connection with the first clause, it is clear that in using the words, ‘unexpended portion of my estate,’ she had reference to that portion of her estate which should remain unconsumed by her husband at his death, and this part of her estate so remaining was, by the terms of the will, addressed not to her husband as legatee, but to the executor of her will, ‘to be given' in the manner provided by law to her nieces. . . . [P. 40.] The intention of Julia P. A. Prather as expressed in her will was to give her estate to her husband for his unrestricted use and consumption during the term of his natural life, with power to control, manage, exchange, sell, and dispose of the same, limited, however, in the ex”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.