252 Pa. Super. 589 - COM., WITHERSPOON v. Witherspoon’s Empirical Analysis
1978
Citation profile
8 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on 249 Pa. Super. 274 - In Re Custody of Hernandez · Commonwealth ex rel. Holschuh v. Holland-Moritz · 242 Pa. Super. 225 - In Re Custody of Myers · Commonwealth ex rel. Johnson v. Pinder · Auman v. Eash
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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Although the best interest of the child remains of paramount concern, the parent has ‘a prima facie right to custody,’ which will be forfeited only if ‘convincing reasons’ appear that the child’s best interest will be served by an award to the third party ... the evidentiary scale is tipped, and tipped hard, to the parents’ side. What the judge must do, therefore, is first, hear all evidence relevant to the child’s best interest, and then, decide whether the evidence on behalf of the third party is weighty enough to bring the scale up to even, and down on the third party’s side.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“a `prima facie right to custody,' which will be forfeited only if `convincing reasons' appear that the child's best interest will be served by an award to the third party. Thus, even before the proceedings start, the evidentiary scale is tipped, and tipped hard, to the parent['s] side.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.