Johnston v. Tomme’s Empirical Analysis
1946
Citation profile
25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 27 later decisions — most recently February 2013 · most notably Estate of Draper v. Bank of America, N.A. (2009), Rape v. Lyerly (1975)
25 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 Ellis v. Berry · Holsz v. Stephen · Eggers v. Anderson · Anding v. Davis · First Nat. Bank v. Owen
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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“We do not lay down a general rule allowing the establishment of a trust by oral agreement, nor do we design a model for all cases. We do say that where a testator executes a will in compliance with an oral agreement with the devisee that the latter will render unique and necessary personal services to him involving a substantial change in the status and manner of living of the promisee, and such services have been performed, so that a revocation of the will amounts to fraud upon the latter, rendering it impossible or impracticable to restore him to the situation in which he was prior to the contract, equity will hold such will to be irrevocable and the rights thereunder may be established.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Is a will, executed in compliance with an oral agreement to execute it, irrevocable by the testator who had received the services and care agreed upon as a consideration therefor?”
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.