297 Pa. Super. 270 - Williams v. Wolfe’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

34 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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Where, as here, no vested right or contractual obligation is involved, an act is not retroactively construed when applied to a condition existing on its effective date even though the condition results from events which occurred prior to that date. “A statute is not retrospective . .. because a part of the requisites for its action is drawn from a time antecedent to its passing”: Endlich, Interpretation of Statutes, § 280. “However, a statute is not regarded as operating retroactively because of the mere fact that it relates to antecedent events, or draws upon antecedent facts for its operation”: 50 Am.Jur.Statutes, § 476. See also 59 C.J., Statutes, 690.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 306 Pa. Super. 431 - Jennis v. Stillman

2. “As Judge Brosky stated in his Wolfe concurrence, [t]here can be no doubt that both the mother and father of a child born out of wedlock have the duty to support such child. Commonwealth v. Rebovich, 267 Pa.Super.Ct. 254 , 406 A.2d 791 (1979). To subject a child born out of wedlock to a limitation period, however reasonable, is to limit that child's unqualified right to receive support from his father. As other jurisdictions have found, such limitation upon an illegitimate child's right to receive support violates the Equal Protection clause of the United States Constitution.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 301 Pa. Super. 276 - Hummel v. Smith

3. “Limitation of action.—All prosecutions under this section must be brought within two years of the birth of the child, except where the reputed father shall have voluntarily contributed to the support of the child, or shall have acknowledged in writing his paternity, in which case a prosecution may be brought at any time within two years of any such contribution or acknowledgment by the reputed father.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 312 Pa. Super. 246 - Commonwealth Ex Rel. Pugh v. Callahan