Hepler v. Hepler’s Empirical Analysis
1954
Citation profile
42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 44 later decisions — most recently April 2019 · most notably Bailes v. Sours (1986), Deahl v. Winchester Department of Social Services (1983)
42 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 Wilson v. Mitchell · Cross v. Commonwealth · Vilas v. Vilas · Buehler v. Buehler · Williams v. Williams
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 44 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The competency of a child as a witness to a great extent rests in the sound discretion of the trial judge, whose decision will not be disturbed unless the error is manifest. It is the duty of the trial judge to determine such competency after a careful examination of the children. In deciding the question the judge must consider the child’s age, his intelligence, or lack of intelligence, and his sense of moral and legal responsibility. * *”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[w]here it is reasonably possible, brothers and sisters of tender years should be reared together and have the full benefit of natural ties of affection and interest that such association develops.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Where . . . [the] child has reached the age of discretion, his wishes should be considered and given weight, though they are not conclusive. [Citations omitted.] In Nelson v. Nelson, 260 P.(2d) 886, 887, it is said, “The rule is that when children have reached an age of discretion, their wishes on the issue of custody may be considered but are not controlling *** And as to what is an age of discretion in this regard (note the qualifying words), the authorities hold that the test is whether the child is sufficiently mature to have intelligent views and wishes on the subject.””
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.