Spears v. Spears’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 4 state decisions

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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The appellee knew of Spears’ marriage for several years, but she did not notify the woman who was living with him that she was his wife, and never made any claim upon him, although she knew where he was, but claims that she burned the letters that she had received from Spears. The appellee’s contention, however, is that Spears could not have obtained a lawful divorce except in Jackson or Escambia County, Florida, and that the proof showed that he did not obtain a divorce at either of these counties, and there can be no presumption that he attempted to unlawfully obtain a divorce from her. * * # “Appellee testified that, after she and Spears were married in 1898, they lived together in Florida as husband and wife until the year 1900, when Spears went to Pensacola and began the practice of law there; that he practiced law there until the latter part of August or the first of September, 1902, when he left Pensacola and the State of Florida for no apparent reason, and without any notice or intimation to appellee that he intended to leave, and without obtaining a divorce. That during the time he stayed at Pensacola he visited his wife and family at intervals, and frequently contributed to their support. While in Pensacola he stayed with appellee’s brother most of the time. She also testified that she had given Spears no cause for divorce or for deserting her, and had never done any of the things for which a divorce might be granted in Florida; that she had never been summoned in ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sims v. Estate of Powell

2. ““So strong is this presumption and the law is so positive in requiring the party who asserts the illegality of a marriage to take the burden of proving it, that such requirement obtains even though it involves the proving of a negative, and although it is shown that one of the parties had contracted a previous marriage, and the existence of the wife or husband of the former marriage at the time of the second marriage is established by proof, it is not sufficient to overcome the presumption of the validity of the second marriage, the law presuming rather that the first marriage has been dissolved by divorce, in order to sustain the second marriage.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sims v. Estate of Powell