Dayton v. Donart’s Empirical Analysis
1879
Citation profile
19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently January 1974
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.
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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““In. our opinion, when a man. dies intestate, leaving a widow and children, the ultimate title to his homestead descends to his widow and children just the same as the title to all his other real estate does, except that it descends to them subject to a homestead interest vested in the widow and such of the children as occupy the homestead at the time of the intestate’s death.” (p. 269.)”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““They say that the first moment of bona fide occupancy by the widow and children so fixed the title in the occupants that no subsequent abandonment by them would have the effect to expose the property to liability for the payment of Church’s debts. Now, if mere occupancy alone for any period of time, long or short, could have the effect to so free the land from liability for Church’s debts that no subsequent abandonment of the premises would expose them to such liability, we should think that under the statutes a moment’s time would be just as good as any longer period of time. But in our opinion no period of time, however long, is sufficient to give absolute title, free from debts, if the debts remain unpaid and not barred by the statute of limitations.” (p. 268.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““But evidently from the statutes they hold the property as their absolute property, free from debts and division only while some of them occupy the same as their homestead.” (p. 270.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Brigham v. Pfister
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.