Hellams v. Ross’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
7 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently July 2003
7 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 Havird v. Schissell · Matheson v. Matheson · Sumter Trust Co. v. Holman · Garbade v. Garbade
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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The fact alone that the testator disposed of property contrary to what others usually consider fair is not sufficient to declare his will void. This principle is thus stated in Matheson v. Matheson, 125 S.C. 165, 171 , 118 S.E. 312 , 313: “The right to make a will carries with it the right to disregard what the world considers a fair disposition of property. In the case of Lee’s Heirs v. Lee’s Executors, 4 McCord 183, 17 Am.Dec. 722 [1827], we find: ‘That a will is unjust to one’s relations is no legal reason that it should be considered an irrational act. The law puts no restrictions upon a man’s right to dispose of his property in any way his partialities, or pride, or caprice may prompt him’.””
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.