Lewin v. Skehan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

17 state decisions

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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “For a court to find contempt, the alleged contemnor must be presently able to comply with the court's order. When it is impossible for a party to comply, the party is not in contempt. It is presumed that an alleged contemnor is presently able to comply when the order itself implies that he was able to comply at the time the order was issued; therefore, the moving party makes a prima facie case of contempt when the moving party establishes that the alleged contemnor has not complied with a valid court order. Once the failure to comply has been established, the alleged contemnor has the burden of production, of going forward with evidence of his inability to comply. The burden of persuasion, however, remains with the moving party.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Harshman v. Harshman

2. “For a person to be held in contempt for violating a court order, that court order must inform the person in definite terms what duties the order imposes upon him.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Harshman v. Harshman

3. “regarding civil contempt for clear error.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Harshman v. Harshman