29 Mass. App. Ct. 704 - Fitzpatrick v. Small’s Empirical Analysis
1991
Citation profile
3
cited by 3 later decisions
2
states following
June 2001
most recently cited
3 state decisions
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 408 (§ 2002 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974)
Relies on Doucette v. Doucette
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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Any designation of any beneficiary in connection with and as provided by an instrument intended to establish a pension, profit-sharing, or other deferred compensation or retirement plan * * * shall be effective according to its terms, notwithstanding any purported testamentary disposition allowed by statute, by operation of law or otherwise to the contrary * * * .” M.G.L.A., Ch. 167D, Section 30.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Kinkle v. Kinkle
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.