Lee v. Menefield’s Empirical Analysis
1947
Citation profile
30 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 30 later decisions — most recently October 1997 · most notably Benedict v. Little (1972), Sykes v. Sykes (1954)
30 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Floyd v. Green · Harris v. Bowles · Summers v. Summers · Kahalley v. Kahalley · Stroup v. Austin
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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““After considering the evidence presented on the subject of mental capacity of Marie Louise Finley [sic], this Court concludes that she was not of unsound mind and that she did have sufficient mental capacity to understand the nature and consequences of what she did in executing the deed and in cashing the certificates of deposit.... “The evidence in this case does not support a finding that the natural order has been reversed and that Doris Marie Weiland was dominating her mother. To the contrary, it appears that Marie Louise Finley was the dominant party in transactions with all of her children. Even if the natural order had been reversed, this Court finds no evidence that there was undue influence exerted on Marie Louise Finley by the defendant, Doris Marie Weiland. To the contrary, it appears that she sought and received the independent advice of her banker, Mike Magnusson, before executing the deed in question and that she informed him of the reasons for cashing the certificates of deposit. That reason appears to be to reimburse Doris Marie Weiland for expenses incurred in relocating a house trailer to be used by Marie Louise Finley.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage““Under such circumstances equity will impress the property with a lien for the amount of the expenditures so made on the principle that ‘where a person makes improvements upon property of another or otherwise increases its value, being induced by fraud, duress, undue influence, or mistake of such a character that he is entitled to restitution, he is entitled to an equitable lien upon the property.’ Restatement, Restitution, p. 689, § 170, p. 640, § 160.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Sykes v. Sykes
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.