Baber v. Caldwell’s Empirical Analysis
1967
Citation profile
13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently January 2012
13 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 Martin v. Kentucky Christian Conference, Inc. · STANSBERRY, ETC. v. McCARTY · Ragsdall v. Church of Christ in Eldora · 4 Ill. App. 2d 470 - Wright v. Smith · Cheshire v. Giles
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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“§ 57-9. How property rights determined on division of church or society. If a division has heretofore occurred or shall hereafter occur in a church or religious society, to which any such congregation is attached, the communicants, pewholders, and pewowners of such congregation, over eighteen years of age, may, by a vote of a majority of the whole number, determine to which branch of the church or society such congregation shall thereafter belong. Such determination shall be reported to the circuit court of the county, or circuit or corporation court of the city wherein the property held in trust for such congregation or the greater part thereof is; and if the determination be approved by the court, it shall be so entered in its chancery order book, and shall be conclusive as to the title to and control of any property held in trust for such congregation, and be respected and enforced accordingly in all of the courts of this State. If a division has heretofore occurred or shall hereafter occur in a congregation, which in its organization and government is a church or society entirely independent of any other church or general society, a majority of the members of such congregation, entitled to vote by its constitution as existing at the time of the division, or where it has no written constitution, entitled to vote by in ordinary practice of custom, may decide the right, title, and control of all property held in trust for such congregation. Their decision shall reported to s”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“churches, such as Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, that are subject to control by super-congregational bodies.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“prayed that the defendants (the minority group) be enjoined “from further interfering with or disrupting the orderly and proper conduct and operation of said Level Green Christian Church, or interfering with its duly appointed minister in the performance of his duties, and from holding or attempting to hold any religious services in said Church contrary to the wishes and direction of the majority of the congregation of said Church and its Board of Elders and Deacons. ...””
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.