195 W. Va. 671 - Farley v. Sartin’s Empirical Analysis
1995
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 63 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 65 later decisions — most recently June 2017 · most notably Commonwealth v. Booth (2001), 204 W. Va. 95 - Kessel v. Leavitt (1998)
2 federal appellate · 63 state decisions — followed in 15 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 Escobedo v. Illinois · Roe v. Wade · Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. · Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. P Casey P Casey · Moragne v. States Marine Lines, Inc.
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 65 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“... [J]ustice is denied when a tortfeasor is permitted to walk away with impunity because of the happenstance that the unborn child had not yet reached viability at the time of death. The societal and parental loss is egregious regardless the state of fetal development. Our concern reflects the fundamental value determination of our society that life old, young, and prospective should not be wrongfully taken away. In the absence of legislative direction, the overriding importance of the interest that we have identified merits judicial recognition and protection by imposing the most liberal means of recovery that our law permits.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[w]henever the death of a person shall be caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default, and the act, neglect or default is such as would (if death had not ensued) have entitled the party injured to maintain an action to recover damages in respect thereof[.]”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[O]ur prior decisions ... firmly established that W.Va.Code, 55-7-5, is a remedial statute and should be liberally construed.”
2 later decisions 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.