223 Mo. App. 1087 - Abel v. Ingram’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

36 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 36 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"It is always a tragedy in the life of a child when its parents separate and are divorced or live apart from each other. It is also impossible for the court to render any judgment fixing the legal right to the custody of a child without causing grief to some party interested in the child. That is especially true in a case like this, where the grandparents have cared for and nutured the child since it was a babe, but, under the decisions of the Supreme Court, by which we are bound, one of which we have cited, the grandparents have no legal right to the continued custody of the child after its parents become able to care for it themselves, and, in this case, we cannot take into consideration the grief that will be felt by its fond grandparents if they are required to allow the child to be taken away. If this child is allowed to remain in the legal custody of the father, it means that the actual custody will remain with the grandparents, so that in reality this is a contest between the parental grandparents and the mother of this child. In that situation, under the authority of the decision of the Supreme Court heretofore cited, by which we are bound, the custody must go to the mother, in the absence of proof that she is incompetent or unable to properly rear it, and there is no evidence of that kind in this case. Further, in contests between parents for the custody of the child, the courts all hold that the age of the child is a very important matter to be considered, and if th”

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

2. “The future good of the child is to be the only end to be sought by us in reaching a conclusion in this case, and, while either parent is able financially to properly feed, clothe, and educate this child, the mother can, and no doubt will, give it that which it needs vastly more than food and clothes, to wit, the tender care and influence of a mother during the period of its growth and development into womanhood. We feel that, under the absolute rules of law by which we are to be governed as applied to the facts developed in this case, the custody of the child should be awarded to its mother, and it will be so ordered.”

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