Smith v. Wells’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
22 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently September 2015
22 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 Mishoe v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. · Zorn Ex Rel. Estate of Zorn v. Crawford
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The assessment of the intangible elements of damages which will of reasonable necessity result in the future to the beneficiaries is, at best, most difficult. The highly speculative inquiry into the prospective value of the second marriage would not contribute to the certainty of the ultimate determination of the damages, and could only serve to inject considerations which would confuse the issues.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“The general elements of damages recoverable are: (1) pecuniary loss, (2) mental shock and suffering, (3) wounded feelings, (4) grief and sorrow, (5) loss of companionship, and (6) deprivation of the use and comfort of the intestate’s society, including the loss of his experience, knowledge, and judgment in managing of the affairs of himself and of his beneficiaries.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“the jury may give such damages . . . as they may think proportioned to the injury resulting from such death . . . .”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Bedgood v. Madalin
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.