Burch v. Burch’s Empirical Analysis
195 F.2d 799 · 1952
Citation profile
59 federal appellate · 12 district · 24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 148 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2016 · most notably Granville-Smith v. Granville-Smith (1955), 49 Ala. App. 514 - Phillips v. Phillips (1973)
59 federal appellate · 12 district · 24 state decisions — followed in 13 states
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 Williams v. State of North Carolina · Williams v. State of North Carolina · Mitchell v. United States · Herrick v. Herrick
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 148 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ * * * incompatibility of temperament necessarily involves both parties. While one spouse may have a more normal temperament than the other and the overt acts evidencing incompatibility may come largely from the other spouse, it is inconceivable that a husband’s temperament can be compatible with that of his wife if hers is incompatible with his. If there is a clash of personalities both must clash.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * We conclude that while incompatibility of temperament in the Virgin Islands Divorce Law does not refer to those petty quarrels and minor bickerings which are but the evidence of that frailty which all humanity is heir to, it unquestionably does refer to conflicts in personalities and dispositions so deep as to be irreconcilable and to render it impossible for the parties to continue a normal marital relationship with each other. To use the ancient Danish phrase, the disharmony of the spouses in their common life must be so deep and intense as to be irremediable. It is the legal recognition of the proposition long established in the earlier Danish law of the Islands that if the parties are so mis-mated that their marriage has in fact ended as the result of their hopeless disagreement- and discord the courts should be empowered to terminate it as a matter of law.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Whether an award of alimony shall be made, as well as the amount to be awarded, is within the discretion of the court, having regard to the conduct of both parties, the amount of property of each and all the other circumstances of the case.” 1”
4 later decisions 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.