White v. Taylor’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “simultaneously in lieu of, but in the same sense as common disaster or common accident. We find no evidence in the record which would in the least indicate that any of the events named in Section Fifth of the will occurred. The evidence that Mrs. Follett was pronounced dead at 3:45 P.M., and that Mrs. Taylor died at 4:56 P.M., shows conclusively that the mother survived the daughter and that they did not die simultaneously. The intention of the testatrix must be ascertained from the words she used in the will. In 2 Schouler on Wills, Executors and Administrators (6th Ed.) 984, Par. 865, the rule of construction is stated as follows: "Words in general, whether technical or popular are to be taken in their plain and usual sense, unless a clear intention to use them in another sense can be collected and that sense ascertained besides. All other things being equal the natural and literal import of words and phrases is presumed to have been intended; and each word is to have its effect, if the general intent be not thwarted thereby * * *.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. White v. Taylor

2. “"Fourth. In the event that I die before the death of my mother, Mrs. Edna Ratcliffe Taylor, the balance of all of my property of every kind and character, both real and personal, of which I die possessed, remaining after the payment of my just debts, I hereby give and bequeath to my mother, Mrs. Edna Ratcliffe Taylor, without limitation of any kind. "Fifth. In the event that my mother, Mrs. Edna Ratcliffe Taylor, dies before I die, or we die simultaneously, or we die under circumstances making it difficult to determine which of us died first, * * *."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. White v. Taylor