McDaniel v. McDaniel’s Empirical Analysis
1970
Citation profile
55 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 55 later decisions — most recently April 2004 · most notably State v. Roll and Scholl (1973), Rutherford v. Katzenberger (1983)
55 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 Samuel Gompers v. Buck's Stove & Range Company · In re Nevitt · Knaus v. Knaus · Hopp v. Hopp · Donner v. Calvert Distillers Corp.
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 55 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ ‘ * * * (1) the complainant is usually a private person as opposed to the State; (2) the contempt proceeding is entitled in the original action and filed as a continuation thereof as opposed to a separate and independent action; (3) holding the defendant in contempt affords relief to a private party; (4) the relief requested is primarily for the benefit of the complainant; (5) the acts complained of do not of themselves constitute crimes or conduct by the defendant so wilful or contumelious that the court is impelled to act on its own motion. Knaus v. Knaus, 387 Pa. 370 , 127 A.2d 669 (1956) * * ” [McDaniel v. McDaniel, 256 Md. 684 , 262 A.2d 52, 55 (1970)]”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“It must not be supposed ... that the imposition of a fixed term of imprisonment for a civil contempt is invalid per se---- In ordinary circumstances, of course, a determinate sentence may be imposed provided the order of the trial judge allows the contemnor to be released if compliance is accomplished prior to the end of his term. As the author of a Comment in the Chicago Law Review put it: “... no objection can be raised to the imposition of a determinate sentence if the contemnor is given the right to purge himself of the contempt. In such a case, if the contemnor retains the same defenses which would have been available to him had the commitment order been couched in terms of ‘confinement until compliance,’ the court has simply limited the potential term of imprisonment. To that, the contemnor certainly cannot object. Comment, The Coercive Nature of Civil Contempt, 33 U.Chi.L.Rev. 121, 130 (1965).””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The distinction between civil and criminal contempt has not escaped us. Chief Judge Marbury quoted from the opinion of Mr. Justice Lamar in Gompers v. Bucks Stove & Range Co., 221 U.S. 418 [ 31 S.Ct. 492 , 55 L.Ed. 797 ] (1911): ‘It is not the fact of punishment but rather its character and purpose that often serve to distinguish between the two classes of cases. If it is for civil contempt the punishment is remedial, and for the benefit of the complainant. But if it is for criminal contempt the sentence is punitive, to vindicate the authority of the court. It is true that punishment by imprisonment may be remedial, as well as punitive, and many civil contempt proceedings have resulted not only in the imposition of a fine, payable to the complainant, but also in committing the defendant to prison. But imprisonment for civil contempt is ordered where the defendant has refused to do an affirmative act required by the provisions of an order which, either in form or substance, was mandatory in its character. Imprisonment in such cases is inflicted not as punishment, but is intended to be remedial by coercing the defendant to do what he had refused to do. The decree in such cases is that the defendant stand committed unless and until he performs the affirmative act required by the court’s order.’ (Citation and footnote omitted) (Emphasis added).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.