Otterson v. Fraser’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 state decisions

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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Life use by creator of trust. Any instrument declaring and creating a trust shall not, when otherwise valid, be held to be an invalid trust or an attempted testamentary disposition of property because the grantor or creator of the trust reserved to himself, to be exercised by him during his lifetime, the right to revoke, amend, alter or modify the trust instrument in whole or in part, or to require that sums from the trust principal be paid to or used for him either at his request or in the discretion of the trustee. Nothing in this section shall be construed as altering or changing in any way the existing law or rules of law relating to the taxation of transfers of property in trust.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 202 Wis. 2d 564 - McMahon v. Standard Bank & Trust Co.

2. “The fact that the widow received less at his death under the trust than she would have if he had disposed of all his personal property by will is not in itself indicative of fraud on her.... “[T]he amount of proof necessary to stamp such a transfer as fraudulent depends in every instance upon the particular facts existing in each case.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In re Estate of Thompson

3. “approval or disapproval of the trustee's recommendations”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 202 Wis. 2d 564 - McMahon v. Standard Bank & Trust Co.