Carr v. Carr’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

25 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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Defendant, who asserted the invalidity of his marriage to plaintiff, had the burden of proof upon the issue, even though the issue required proof of a negative fact difficult to prove. . . . And where a valid first marriage has been shown, as in the instant case, it may be presumed that, at the time of the second marriage, the first marriage had been dissolved, either by a decree of divorce, or by the death of the former spouse.... The presumption of the validity of the last marriage may be repelled only by the most cogent and satisfactory evidence .... ””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re Marriage of Sumners

2. ““The law does not impose upon every person contracting a second marriage the necessity of preserving the evidence that the former marriage has been dissolved either by death of their former consort or by a decree of court, in order to protect themselves against a bill for a divorce.... “The presumption of the validity of the last marriage may be repelled only by the most cogent and satisfactory evidence.””

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

3. “pending plaintiff's release of claim to the personalty and her relinquishment of her inchoate dower interest in the described realty the title to which is vested in defendant.”

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