Syfer v. Dolby’s Empirical Analysis
1943
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 28 later decisions — most recently October 1994 · most notably Baltimore Luggage Co. v. Ligon (1955), Schlossberg v. Schlossberg (1975)
3 federal appellate · 25 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 Woodstock College v. Hankey · Loveren v. Eaton · Third National Bank v. Scribner · Kamps v. Alexander · Warnken v. Warnken
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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Assuming a testator to have made a will, to have made a first codicil modifying that will, to have made a second codicil describing his will by the date which the original instrument bore, and confirming that will, but observing an absolute silence with regard to the first codicil, what is the effect of the second codicil? Does it revive the first will as it originally stood, or does it confirm the original will as modified by the first codicil? ... The question, therefore, which I have to consider is whether the reference to the date of the original will is an indication of the intention to deprive all instruments other than the original will itself of any force--in fact, whether such a reference to a will effects a revocation of the antecedent codicils. To this inquiry a series of cases appears to afford a clear negative answer.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Where a testator in a codicil revokes a provision of his will, and in a second codicil referring to the will by date says: 'I do confirm my said will in all respects, except so far as the same is changed by this codicil', he does not by the second codicil reestablish the provision in the will which had been revoked by the first codicil.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“There is a distinction between an intermediate will and an intermediate codicil ... and where the testator by a codicil confirms his will, the will, together with all codicils, is ordinarily taken to have been confirmed.”
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.