30 Va. App. 113 - Kelln v. Kelln’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The principles that emerge from the cases addressing the classification of property which has been the subject of interspousal gift do not depend upon the classification of the source of the property but rather upon whether one party by clear and express language intended to give the asset as the other spouse's separate property or merely intended to make a gift during the marriage, which becomes marital property. Where the facts clearly and unambiguously support the conclusion that one of the parties has relinquished all right and interest in marital property and has transferred those rights unconditionally to the other, to the exclusion of the donor’s continuing claim upon the property as a marital asset pursuant to Code § 20-107.3, a separate property right will be found to exist.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. McCreery v. McCreery · 39 Va. App. 161 - Shenk v. Shenk

2. “Because of the progressive rates, the impact of federal estate taxes on the combined estate of husband and wife must be least when their taxable estates are approximately equal.... The opportunity to split the taxable estates of husband and wife by means of the estate tax marital deduction is entirely lost if the wife, [for example,] having little or no property of her own, is the first to die. This situation can be guarded against by gifts to the wife during her life, insuring that she can at least use most of the unified credit which will be available to her estate.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bartlett v. Bartlett