Thomas v. Costello’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The evidence reveals that appellee was never adopted by Mrs. C. C. (Barry) Costello, in the manner as provided by statute, Sections 56-101 to 56-120, inclusive, Ark. Stats. 1947. Mrs. Costello reared and held the appellee out as her natural son. However, no evidence was introduced to prove that Mrs. Costello ever agreed to adopt appellee. Our court has many times held that in an attempt to prove a contract to adopt a person, the burden of proof rests with the person claiming the benefit of an alleged contract for adoption, to establish it by clear, cogent and convincing evidence. Stanley v. Wacaster, Administrator, 206 Ark. 872 , 178 S. W. 2d 50 ; O’Connor v. Patton, 171 Ark. 626 , 286 S. W. 822 . The Chancery Court is without authority to declare appellee an heir of Mrs. C. C. (Barry) Costello, by equitable adoption. This court held in Cooper v. Bradford, 196 Ark. 327 , 117 S. W. 2d 719 that: ‘The mere contract to adopt is not sufficient of itself to make a child a legal heir of the promisor, because the right to take as heir exists only by operation of the law.’ ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wilks v. Langley