Watts v. Finley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 federal appellate · 21 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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]his case is to be distinguished from those cases wherein the will provided that “in case of” or “in the event of” the death of the first devisee, the property should go to another. It should also be distinguished from those cases where an estate is devised and it is provided that “should” the devisee die, or “should” the devisee die “without children,” etc., the property is to vest in another. [Cits.] In these cases death was referred to as an uncertain event; and the law favoring the first taker and the vesting of estates, it was held that such words referred to the death of the devisee before the death of the testator.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Thompson v. Blackwell, Executrixes

2. “but merely as an expression of a desire on the part of the testator that, if possible, the property be so used.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Stone v. Stone