Kimberlin v. Dull’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]he paramount rule of construction in determining the meaning of a trust provision is that the grantor’s intent is controlling. In determining the intent of a grantor, courts are to consider the trust instrument as a whole and are not to give any clause in the trust undue preference. Absent ambiguity, the intent of the settlor is determined from the four corners of the trust instrument. It is not this court’s function to rewrite a trust in order to effectuate a more equitable distribution or to impart an intent to the testatrix that is not expressed in the trust.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Thompson v. Koenen

2. “it would serve no substantive purpose to permit revocation and creation of a new trust with the same corpus but not allow amendment of the original trust.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re Cable Family Trust June 10, 1987