Payne v. Rice’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[no] mere intention or effort to dispose of property by will, however clearly and definitely expressed in writing, is sufficient; such purpose must be executed in the only manner authorized by the statute, that is, the writing itself must be authenticated by the signature of the decedent. It is not sufficient to raise a doubt as to whether his name is intended to authenticate the paper which is propounded as a will, for, to use the explicit language of the statute, it must be signed “in such manner as to make it manifest that the name is intended as his signature,” and unless so signed it is not valid.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Kidd v. Gunter

2. “[n]o will shall be valid unless it be ... signed by the testator ... in such manner as to make it manifest that the name is intended as a signature.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Slate v. Titmus

3. “testamentary intent [must] be ascertained from the face of the paper, extrinsic evidence being not admissible either to prove or disprove it.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Canody v. Hamblin