231 Mo. App. 235 - Kent v. Knight’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It may be conceded that the estate of a deceased wife is liable to a third party for funeral expenses, but this fact does not aid the argument in favor of the liability of her estate to her husband for such expense. The husband is equally liable, and in case he discharges the obligation he is merely paying his own debt. He cannot demand and receive reimbursement from the estate of his wife for the performance of his own legal and moral obligation to her. If a husband desires to play the role of a derelict, escape his obligation, and shift the burden of the final necessity upon the estate of his wife, he can do it by declining the sacred trust of sepulture”. “ * * * And we may add that it is a mere matter of justice to afford a third person, who has furnished burial, recourse against the estate of the deceased wife in the event of his failure to collect from an inpecunious husband. The fact that a creditor may have a concurrent remedy against the wife’s estate does not relieve the obligation of the husband. Respondent apparently concedes that, in the event that the deceased wife leaves no estate, the undertaker could compel payment by the surviving husband. We hold that his liability exists whether the wife was solvent or insolvent, and that his obligation to pay such necessary expense is equal to if not greater than the obligation of the estate of the deceased to pay the same”.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Gibson v. Muehlebach Funeral Home, Inc.