Armstrong v. Armstrong’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

40 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 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ ‘Our decisions have recognized two different types of agreement for the payment of alimony. One is an independent contract, usually in writing, by which the husband, in contemplation of the divorce, binds himself to pay a fixed amount or fixed installments for his wife’s support. Even though such a contract is approved by the chancellor and incorporated in the decree, as in the Backus case, it does not merge into the court’s award of alimony, and consequently, as we pointed out in that opinion, the wife has a remedy at law on the contract in the event the chancellor has reason not to enforce his decretal award by contempt proceedings. The second type of agreement is that by which the parties, without making a contract that is meant to confer upon the wife an independent cause of action, merely agree upon ‘the amount the court by its decree should fix as alimony.’ * * * A contract of the latter character is usually less formal than an independent property settlement; it may be intended merely as a means of dispensing with the proof upon an issue not in dispute, and by its nature it merges in the divorce decree.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Kersh v. Kersh · Sterling v. Sterling

2. “Here, too, the court might well have punished appellant for contempt if it'had found that he was in willful violation of its decree, but as stated in Báchus, the court does not have to enforce the provisions of a decree through contempt proceedings. Óf course, one of the purposes of incorporating an agreement that is independently entered into, is to be able to enforce its provisions through contempt proceedings.”

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

3. “The parties to a divorce action may agree upon the alimony or maintenance to be paid. Although the court is not bound by the litigants’ contract, nevertheless if the court approves the settlement and awards support money upon that basis there is then no power to modify the decree at a later date.”

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