Powell v. Holland’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
22 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently April 2007
22 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 Neblett v. Smith · Mowery v. Coffman · Arnold v. Groobey · McCabe v. Cary's · Coffman v. Coffman
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“All rules with reference to wills, however, are subject to this, that the underlying principle always is that in the construction of wills the intention of the testator, if it is legal and can be determined, is controlling. All of the refinements of the law must yield to the power of the testator to dispose of his property as he desires. When this intention, which is the guiding star, is ascertained and can be made effective, the quest is ended and all other rules become immaterial.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Hoover v. Jolley · Picot v. Picot“Courts are asked to construe wills precisely because their language appears to be subject to different interpretations. If the words used are free of all doubt, a court has no occasion to determine what the author meant. When the words are arguably ambiguous, adversary parties draw conflicting inferences, perhaps colored by self-interest. The relative merits of the inferences urged must be weighed and the conflict resolved by a disinterested arbiter. A judge must determine what is only arguably implied and what is necessarily implied.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Roseberry v. Moncure“[t]he only reason anyone can have for making a will is to change the devolution of his property from that prescribed by the statutes of descent and distributions. Hence there is a strong presumption that the testator intended to dispose of his entire estate, and courts are decidedly averse to adopting any construction of a will which leaves a testator intestate as to any portion of his estate, unless compelled to do so.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.