Messick v. Pennell’s Empirical Analysis
1943
Citation profile
10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently May 1977
10 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 Upman v. Thomey · Kelly v. Rosenstock · Jacobs v. Schwartz · Eden St. Permanent Bldg. Asso. No. 1 v. Lusby
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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““At the outset it may be observed that the bill in this case does not allege that the deed was procured by fraud, undue influence, or in any manner that is unlawful. The charge is that it was conveyed to the grantee ‘in order to avoid the necessity of making a will and in order that the property might be sold and the proceeds distributed among the surviving children.’ There is no written paper of any kind or description signed by the grantor evidencing such an intention. In this state of the record the case falls directly within the seventh section of the Statute of Frauds, which provides: ‘all Declarations or Creations of Trusts and Confidence of any Lands, Tenements, or Hereditaments, shall be manifested and proved by some Writing signed by the Party who is by Law enabled to declare such Trust, or by his last Will in Writing, or else they shall be utterly void and of none Effect.’ ””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Juliano v. Juliano““The testimony, therefore, of verbal declarations after the grant by the grantor in his lifetime, that he intended this property conveyed by deed absolute in form to be sold by the grantee and the proceeds distributed among his children is a verbal declaration of trust and this testimony should not have been received in evidence. It is unnecessary to refer to other authorities as the law is determined in this State that an express trust must be evidenced by writing in accordance with the seventh section of the Statute of Frauds * *”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Juliano v. Juliano
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.