Courson v. Courson’s Empirical Analysis
1957
Citation profile
44 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 46 later decisions — most recently November 2009 · most notably Taylor v. Taylor (1986), McAlear v. McAlear (1984)
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 Emerson v. Emerson · Hood v. Hood · Waters v. Waters · Christiano v. Christiano · Polley v. Polley
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 46 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"From the time of Foliamb’s case (44 Eliz.), 3 Salk. 138, (about 1602) until the divorce act of 20 and 21 Viet. ch. 85 (about 1857), no absolute divorce could be judicially granted in England. The only legal separation recognized was a divorce from bed and board upon a decree of the Ecclesiastical Court. These Courts, as an incident to the decree, granted alimony, temporary or permanent, but only as a part of the decree a mensa et thoro. Alimony, therefore, under the English law had no independent existence, and no Court, not even the Ecclesiastical, could grant alimony when it was the only relief sought.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““[A] maintenance afforded to the wife, where the husband refuses to give it, or where from his improper conduct compels her to separate from him. It is ... a provision for her support, to continue during their joint lives, or so long as they live separate.” Wallingsford v. Wallingsford, 6 H. & J. 485, 488 (1825); accord, Courson v. Courson, 213 Md. 183, 186 , 129 A. 2d 917 (1957).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The question whether an award might be terminated under circumstances shocking to the conscience of the court and outraging public morals may be left open.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.