McConnell v. Doolittle’s Empirical Analysis
1920
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 148 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 159 later decisions — most recently January 2005 · most notably 17 Cal. 2d 1 - Church Home for Children of Protestant Episcopal Church v. Lawrence (1941), 54 Cal. 2d 234 - Torregano v. Torregano (1960)
5 federal appellate · 148 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 Estate of Watts · In Re Estate of Henderson · Le Breton v. Cook · Rosenberg v. Frank
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 159 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“according to the intention of the testator as expressed therein, and this intention must be given effect as far as possible.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“... the paramount rule [is] that the ultimate question is the intention of the testator as expressed in the will, and that technical rules of interpretation must yield to an intention clearly expressed. The real question ... is, What did the testator mean in view of the language he has used in his will, in the light afforded by certain rules of interpretation which must prevail where a contrary intent does not clearly appear on the face of the will? Such is the question here involved. We have said: 'Of this class of questions it may be said, with more truth, perhaps, than of any other, that each case depends upon its own peculiar facts, and that precedents have comparatively small value. Except for the establishment of general principles, very little aid can be procured from adjudged cases in the construction of wills.' [Citations.]”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“... It is self-evident that while the son, who was in the strict technical sense the sole heir apparent of this widow of sixty years of age, was an heir, he could not be 'heirs', nor could the real property be distributed 'among' him, the term 'distributed among' necessarily referring 'to a gift to more than two' heirs. (See In re Hildebrandt's Estate, 268 Pa. 132 [ 110 A. 760 ].) It is almost impossible to conceive that the testatrix, knowing, as she must be held to have known, that her son was the sole heir at law, taking the word 'heir' in the technical sense, would have used this language 'distributed among my heirs,' etc., to indicate a gift to him.”
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.