Smith v. Shaw’s Empirical Analysis
1952
Citation profile
12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently November 1999
12 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 Succession of Blakemore · Succession of Batchelor · Succession of Hill · Succession of Müh · Succession of Tallieu
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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ * * * while the Code does not specify that the destruction of a testament constitutes a revocation thereof, the fact of intentional destruction by the testator as constituting the most effective method of invalidation has been recognized by this Court on many occasions. See Succession of Muh, 35 La.Ann. 394 ; Succession of Blakemore, 43 La.Ann. 845 , 9 So. 496 ; Succession of Hill, 47 La.Ann. 329 , 16 So. 819 ; Succession of Batchelor, 48 La. Ann. 278 , 19 So. 283 ; Succession of Tallieu, 180 La. 257 , 156 So. 345 ; Succession of Dambly, 191 La. 500 , 186 So. 7 .””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“"The revocation of testaments by the act of the testator is express or tacit, general or particular. It is express when the testator has formally declared in writing that he revokes his testament, or that he revokes such a legacy or a particular disposition. It is tacit when it results from some other disposition of the testator, or from some act which supposes a change of will. It is general when all the dispositions of a testament are revoked. It is particular when it falls on some of the dispositions only, without touching the rest."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““ * * * if the testatment was destroyed, there was an end of all testamentary disposition, so far as that testament was concerned, and the testator was in a situation as though he had never disposed by last will, and there was no necessity for an express or a tacit revocation. If the testator burns or tears up the will, there is no will in existence; no testament that can be probated.””
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.