230 Mo. App. 811 - Schwalbert v. Konert’s Empirical Analysis
1934
Citation profile
17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently May 1977
17 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 Elsea v. Smith · Weiermueller v. Scullin · Leeper v. Taylor · Kersey v. O'Day · Townsend v. Schaden
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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * Speaking for myself, it is difficult to see the reason of this strict rule. What difference does it make whether the conversation was before or after the grant of letters of administration? The dead man is no party to the conversations. All the persons engaged in the conversations are living. Some of them are permitted to testify to the conversations, but the living party to the suit is excluded because the opposing party to the suit is dead. If he had been living, and was not present at the conversation, he would not be able to say anything about it. It strikes me, as to these conversations, separate and independent from any transaction with the deceased, to permit the living witnesses to give their version of the conversation, and then exclude the living party from giving his, is directly in conflict with the spirit of the statute, of placing all parties on an equal footing. The party to the suit must remain silent, and living witnesses can testify that he made certain statements, and he is not permitted even to deny their statements. If the deceased was present at the time of these conversations, I could see the reason of the rule.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Flanagan v. DeLapp“The sole provision of the proviso contained in said section was to silence by law one of the parties to a litigated obligation where death or insanity has silenced the other. . . . This court has many times held that the statute does not exclude the living party from testifying where the evidence relates to transactions and conversations had with others to which the deceased was not a party and with which he had no connection and of which he had no knowledge.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“. . . and where an executor or administrator is a party, the other party shall not be admitted to testify in his own favor unless the contract in issue was originally made with a person who is living and competent to testify except as to such acts and contracts as have been done or made since the probate of the will or the appointment of an administrator.”
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.