Smith v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1965
Citation profile
24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently July 2025
24 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 Peek v. Wachovia Bank & Trust Company · Hawkins v. M & J FINANCE CORP. · Boddie v. Bond · In Re the Will of Covington · High v. Pearce
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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“§ 29-30. Election of surviving spouse to take life interest in lieu of intestate share provided. (a) In lieu of the share provided in G.S. 29-14 [share of surviving spouse] or 29-21 [share of surviving spouse of illegitimate intestate], the surviving spouse of an intestate or the surviving spouse who dissents from the will of a testator shall be entitled to take as his or her intestate share a life estate in one third in value of all the real estate of which the deceased spouse was seised and possessed of an estate of inheritance at any time during coverture, except that real estate as to which the surviving spouse: (1) Has waived his or her rights by joining with the other spouse in a conveyance thereof, or (2) Has released or quitclaimed his or her interest therein in accordance with G.S. 52-10, or (3) Was not required by law to join in conveyance thereof in order to bar the elective life estate, or (4) Is otherwise not legally entitled to the election provided in this section.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““a life estate in one third in value of all the real estate of which the deceased spouse was seized and possessed of an estate of inheritance at any time during coverture, except that real estate as to which the surviving spouse: “(1) Has waived his or her rights by joining with the other spouse in a conveyance thereof, or “(2) Has released or quitclaimed his or her interest therein in accordance with G.S. 52-10, or “(3) Was not required by law to join in conveyance thereof in order to bar the elective life estate, or “(4) Is otherwise not legally entitled to the election provided in this section.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“preserves to a surviving spouse the benefits of the former rights of dower and curtesy.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Price v. Price
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.