Mattox v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
22 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently June 2010
22 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 Kessing v. National Mortgage Corporation · Singleton v. Stewart · Braddy v. . Elliott · Gudger v. White. · Williams v. . Thompson
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“`Words deliberately put in a deed, and inserted there for a purpose, are not to be lightly considered, or arbitrarily thrust aside.' "To discover the intention of the parties `is the main object of all constructions. When the intention of the parties can be ascertained, nothing remains but to effectuate that intention.' "We can see no reason why the manifest intention of the grantor should be so carefully regarded in determining what property his deed covers and so entirely disregarded in determining what estate in that property the grantee shall take. "`The inclination of many courts at the present day is to regard the whole instrument without reference to formal divisions. The deed is so construed, if possible, as to give effect to all its provisions, and thus effectuate the intention of the parties. When an instrument is informal, the interest transferred by it depends not so much upon the words and phrases it contains as upon the intention of the parties as indicated by the whole instrument.'”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Whetsell v. Jernigan
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.