213 Cal. App. 2d 803 - Goldstein v. Hoffman’s Empirical Analysis
1963
Citation profile
67 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 67 later decisions — most recently July 2012 · most notably 62 Cal. App. 3d 389 - Goodley v. Wank & Wank, Inc. (1976), 3 Cal. 3d 176 - Parker v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. (1970)
67 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 Estate of Platt · 53 Cal. 2d 567 - Brewer v. Simpson · 16 Cal. 2d 516 - Bank of California v. Superior Court · Brown v. Superior Court · 129 Cal. App. 2d 558 - Cone v. Union Oil Co.
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 67 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is well settled that a person may contract to make a particular disposition of his property by will, and in case of a breach the promisee has several available remedies. He may bring an action at law for damages. [Citations.] Equitable relief in the form of ‘quasi specific performance’ of the contract may be obtained where the remedy at law is inadequate and the promisor has failed to make the promised disposition of his will. [Citations.] It has also been recognized that the promisees of such a contract need not wait until the death of the promisor but may seek equitable relief against inter vivos conveyances made by him in fraud of their rights. [Citations.] “The right to enforce such a contract to make a particular disposition of property on death is not restricted to the promisee. Where two parties agree to make mutual wills, each promising to dispose of his property to the other or, if the other be dead, to certain third persons, and one of the parties performs by leaving his property to the other, the intended devisees and legatees are entitled to enforce their rights as beneficiaries under the agreement.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“The same principle should be applied to a constructive trust based on conduct of the decedent, including failure to perform a promise to make a will.... [An] action to impose the [constructive] trust does not interfere with the proceedings in probate. It does not set forth a claim against the estate, or against the executor, or against his right to possession for the purposes of administration. [¶] The action is in effect a suit between a claimant under the contract and claimants under the will or by intestacy as to who is entitled to all or part of the estate, and it does not purport to interfere with the administration by the executor, who, with respect to the proceeding, is in the position of a stakeholder.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.