Brown v. Resort Developments’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Every person is presumed to be of sound mind, and the burden is on the party who alleges to the contrary to establish such charge. The test for determining whether one lacks sufficient capacity to become bound absolutely by deed or contract is whether, at the time the instrument was executed, the grantor possessed sufficient mental capacity to understand the nature of the transaction and to agree to its provisions. Mental ability varies from one individual to another; therefore, no specific degree of mental acuteness is to be prescribed as the measure of one’s capacity to execute a deed. And, when mental capacity is in issue, the outcome of every case must depend mainly on the facts surrounding the execution of the deed in question. Hence, the testimony of witnesses who were present when the instrument was executed is entitled to greater weight that the testimony of those witnesses not present.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Jeffries v. Jeffries · Hill v. Brooks