Stuart v. Stuart’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “About 20 years after the parties were married Mrs. Stuart brought this suit for divorce, on the ground of indignities. Stuart did not contest the divorce, but he did resist his wife’s assertion that she was entided to more than half of the marital property because she had been the principal breadwinner. This appeal is from the chancellor’s equal division of all the marital property, some of which had been acquired jointly and some in Mrs. Stuart’s name only. At the time of their marriage Stuart was a painter and Mrs. Stuart a court reporter. Stuart suffered a work-related injury that kept him from working most of the time. He took care of the house and yard, did most of the cooking, worked when he was able to, and helped in his wife’s business by proofreading and delivering transcripts. Mrs. Stuart worked steadily as a regular or free-lance court reporter, earning about two thirds of the family income. She testified that she knew what is meant by a feme sole and as such intended to acquire separate property in her own name. The chancellor was right in dividing the marital property equally. The appellant relies in part on our constitutional provision that a married woman may acquire and transfer property as if she were a feme sole, with such property being free from her husband’s debts. Ark. Const, art. 9, § 7 (1874). That provision was meant to put a wife on an equal footing with her husband in the acquisition and transfer of property, but it does not purport to clothe the wi”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Ark. App. 247 - Baxley v. Baxley