240 Mo. App. 705 - Wills v. Baker’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[H]ere it does not appear that defendant father was at fault in the matter at all, and, indeed, no decree of divorce has been given to either party. Presumptively, the defendant furnished a good home and all necessaries to the minor son. The parties stand as husband and wife, and while the primary duty of support rests upon the husband, as a corollary thereto, he is entitled to the custody and earnings of the minor children as well at common law .... It is therefore clear enough that, unless the father is at fault in some way, he is entitled to the care and custody of the minor children at his home, and a parent who is willing to support his children at home is not bound to provide for them elsewhere, except where he has wrongfully driven them away or at least assented to the mother’s taking or keeping them .... To permit the mother to recover in such circumstances without at least a showing of some special ground — i.e., as if the child were in want or likely to suffer for necessities in the future — would be awarding an advantage to her which accrued because of her own wrongful act.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State Ex Rel. Division of Family Services v. Standridge