Harris v. Bowles’s Empirical Analysis
1922
Citation profile
44 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 44 later decisions — most recently January 1988 · most notably State v. Black (1940), Dulaney v. Burns (1928)
44 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 Louis Beyer v. Caroline Le Fevre · Coghill v. Kennedy · Bancroft v. Otis · Nelson v. Brown · Delaplain v. Grubb
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 44 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The undue influence which will overturn or defeat a testamentary disposition of property must be of such a character as to overpower the will of the testator, and substitute another’s will in its place. It must amount to controlling, mental restraint and coercion, destroying the free agency of the testator. In fact, to constitute such undue influence, the will and wish of the testator must be subordinated and displaced by the superior, dominating will of another. Affection, or a desire to gratify another’s wishes is not that sort of coercion which defeats attempted testamentary disposition. All the better instincts and emotions are left in full play, and are harmless unless the will itself — the power of independent action — is overcome. It ceases to be the will of the ostensible testator, only when it is shown to have been brought about by another’s superior will." (Emphasis added.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Halman v. Bullard
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.