26 Md. App. 620 - Kramer v. Kramer’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
56 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 57 later decisions — most recently March 2013 · most notably Petrini v. Petrini (1994), Unkle v. Unkle (1986)
56 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 Slice v. Carozza Properties, Inc. · Parker v. Junior Press Printing Service, Inc. · Hild v. Hild · Zouck v. Zouck · Janda v. General Motors 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 57 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Or, because the agreement was made by married persons living separate and apart, it could be viewed as one designed to satisfy the father’s legal obligation to support his children, which obligation, under then existing law, required him to support his children until they reached the age of 21. The fact that the agreement contains no express provision for termination of payments does not permit it to be viewed as one allowing the father to terminate payments at any time. Such an interpretation would, in essence, view the father’s promise as one to provide payments so long as he was willing so to do, a view which negates the very existence of an agreement because of the illusory nature of the father’s promise. We think it obvious that in 1967 reasonable married persons, who had separated and had entered into an agreement for the support of their children, would have thought that that agreement was an agreement designed to satisfy, without the need of a court adjudication, the legal obligation of the supporting parent to his children, an obligation which at that time required support until the age of 21.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[AJmong other things, the fitness of the persons seeking custody, the adaptability of the prospective custodian to the task, the age, sex and health of the child, the physical, spiritual and moral well-being of the child, the environment and surroundings in which the child will be reared, the influences likely to be exerted on the child, and, if he or she is old enough to make a rationale choice, the preference of the child.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“There is no requirement that there be a formal written agreement in matters involving separation, alimony, child support and custody. The existence of an agreement with respect to such matters may be verified from testimony, the conduct of the parties, and other evidence in the case. Here the mother’s acceptance of payments unilaterally determined by the father to be appropriate, for a period of six years, without resort to a support action, constitutes acquiescence in and acceptance of an offer of support for the children made by the father, and, therefore, constitutes an agreement between the parties with respect to support payments for the three children. See Eckard v. Gardner, 255 Md. 171, 178, 257 A.2d 174, 177 (1969), Rethorst v. Rethorst, 214 Md. 1, 15 , 133 A.2d 101, 109 (1957).”
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.