Wilkinson v. Witherspoon’s Empirical Analysis
1965
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently November 1998
3 federal appellate · 19 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 King v. Merryman · Stevens v. Sparks · Deal's Adm'r v. Merchants & Mechanics Savings Bank · Quesenberry v. Funk · Johnson v. McCarty
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““... Campbell Eloise V. and ... Campbell Cleo S. ... as joint tenants with right of survivorship and not as tenants in common, and not as tenants by the entirety, the undersigned hereby apply for a savings account in First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Clifton Forge and for the issuance of evidence thereof in their joint names described as aforesaid. You are directed to act pursuant to any one or more of the joint tenants’ signatures, shown below, in any manner in connection with this account and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, to pay, without any liability for such payment, to any one or the survivor or survivors at any time. This account may be pledged in whole or in part as security for any loan made by you to one or more of the undersigned. Any such pledge shall not operate to sever or terminate either in whole or in part the joint tenancy estate and relationship reflected in or established by this contract. It is agreed by the signatory parties with each other and by the parties with you that any funds placed in or added to the account by one of the parties are and shall be conclusively intended to be a gift and delivery at that time of such funds to the other signa tory party or parties to the extent of his or their pro rata interest in the account. * # # “Note: The correct way to establish a common law joint tenancy or its equivalent in any state is to use ‘and’ in joining tenants’ names on all evidence of the account. All tenants should si”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Thus, it appears that the golden thread of decision running through these cases is that the intention of the depositor is the all-important consideration. Where there was, in the terms of the deposit, a clear expression of an intention that the survivor should become the owner of the account upon the death of the depositor, as in the Deal case, the intention was upheld. Where such an intention was not fully disclosed by the terms of the deposit but clearly appeared when the terms were considered along with other evidence, as in the Stevens case, effect was given to the intention. But where a contrary intention was shown to exist, as in the King, Wrenn and Quesenberry cases, the court did not hesitate to exclude the pretended rights of the survivor.”
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.