217 W. Va. 684 - Calvert v. Scharf’s Empirical Analysis
2005
Citation profile
19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently August 2024 · most notably 219 W. Va. 289 - State Ex Rel. Johnson v. Reed (2006), 227 W. Va. 627 - Humphries v. DETCH (2011)
19 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 56 Cal. 2d 583 - Lucas v. Hamm · Savings Bank v. Ward · Heyer v. Flaig · Stowe v. Smith · 197 W. Va. 172 - Gallapoo v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[d]irect, intended, and specifically identifiable beneficiaries of a will have standing to sue the lawyer who prepared the will where it can be shown that the testator's intent, as expressed in the will, has been frustrated by the negligence of the lawyer so that the beneficiaries' interest(s) under the will is either lost or diminished.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Generally, in a suit against an attorney for negligence, the plaintiff must prove three things in order to recover: (1) the attorney's employment; (2) his/her neglect of a reasonable duty; and (3) that such negligence resulted in and was the proximate cause of loss to the plaintiff.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“If the testator's intent, as expressed in the testamentary instruments, is fully implemented, no further challenge will be allowed. Thus, a beneficiary who is simply disappointed with what he or she received from the estate will have no cause of action against the testator's lawyer.. This limitation ... protects the integrity and solemnity of an individual's testamentary instruments as well as the testator's express «intent.. -”
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.