Dalton v. Dalton’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
30 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently September 2005 · most notably In Re Guardianship of Williams (1994), Simmons v. Simmons (1978)
30 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 In re Bort · Gardner v. Gardner · Jackson v. Jackson · St. Clair v. St. Clair · Janney v. Janney
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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““When the issue of child custody is between the parents, it is an elementary rule in this state that if children are of tender age they almost of necessity must be entrusted to their mother’s care, without weighing unduly what may be some possible short comings in, the mother’s character or conduct.” (Syl. ¶ 2.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Patton v. Patton““Where the custody of children is an issue between parents the primary question for determination is what best serves the interests and welfare of the children, and all other issues are subordinate thereto.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Patton v. Patton
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.