Stephens v. Stephens’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. ““Antenuptial contracts are perfectly legitimate, and are uniformly sustained, unless there is 'evidence that they have been procured by fraud. The courts carefully scrutinize the circumstances of the execution, and the burden is upon the husband or his representative to show that no unfair advantage has been taken of the wife. Where the amount which the wife would receive under the contract approximates what she would have received under the law, no suspicion ordinarily attaches to the transaction; but the contrary is true when a gross disproportion exists between the amounts receivable under the two states of case. “In this case, such a disproportion does exist and. a presumption of fraud arises, placing upon decedent’s representatives the burden of showing that the contract was obtained fairly, and without fraud, concealment, deception, or undue influence.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Harlin v. Harlin