Mobley v. Mobley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

24 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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““A decree or judgment for child support based on an agreement possesses dual characteristics and is interpreted like a contract between the parties. Though the judgment may partake of the nature of a contract and also of the nature of a decree, contractual provisions, even though made a part of a decree, insofar as they go beyond statute provisions, cannot be enforced by contempt proceedings. * * * “Under the statute a divorce decree providing for child support payments in accordance with an agreement of the parties may be modified by a subsequent order, and if modified may be enforced by contempt proceedings only as to the modified amount. However, the modification does not affect the liability for the contractual amount, and the obligee is entitled to recover delinquent payments based on this contract by the ordinary processes of law for the enforcement of contractual obligations.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Murray v. Murray