Gilbert v. Findlay College’s Empirical Analysis
1950
Citation profile
14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently June 2007
14 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 Price v. Hitaffer · In Re the Construction of the Will of Maybaum · In Re the Estate of Cole · Parker v. Cobe · American Bible Society v. Cameron
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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The English rule, disregarding the expressed intention of the testator, was based upon the theory that the courts would not compel an executor to perform an act which would be entirely nugatory. Some of the cases stated that when a testator directed an executor to purchase an annuity, he would be presumed to do that with the knowledge that the annuitant could claim the cash principal instead of the annuity. The theory was that if an annuity was purchased for a legatee's benefit, he could then immediately sell his annuity and get the purchase price. Accordingly it would be a useless act for the executor to buy the annuity. Annuities were purchased more frequently in England than in this country, (Williams Case, 3 Bl. 186 , 228) and while we must accept the statements made by the English courts that they could there be immediately sold, it is doubtful whether that condition obtains in this country. If it does not, then the reason for the rule does not exist. We have no facts before us on this question, but we do not have to decide, in this case, whether the English law fits our circumstances and conditions, because of the conclusion we have reached that it could not apply to these particular bequests.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“If a person hereafter dying shall direct in his will the purchase of an annuity, the person or persons to whom the income thereof shall be directed to be paid shall not have the right to elect to take the capital sum directed to be used for such purchase in lieu of such annuity except to the extent the will expressly provides for such right, or except to the extent that the will expressly provides that an assignable annuity be purchased.”
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.