301 Pa. Super. 276 - Hummel v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The ability of blood grouping tests to exonerate innocent putative fathers was confirmed by a 1976 report developed jointly by the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association. The joint report recommended the use of seven blood test ‘systems’ ABO, Rh, MNSs, Kell, Duffy, Kidd and HLA — when investigating questions of paternity. These systems were found to be ‘reasonable’ in cost and to provide a 91% cumulative probability of negating paternity for erroneously accused Negro men and 93% for white men. The effectiveness of the seven systems attests the probative value of blood test evidence in paternity cases. The importance of that scientific evidence is heightened because ‘[tjhere are seldom accurate or reliable eyewitnesses since the sexual activities usually take place in intimate and private surroundings, and the self-serving testimony of a party is of questionable reliability.’ As Justice BRENNAN wrote while a member of the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court: “[I]n the field of contested paternity... the truth is so often obscured because social pressures create a conspiracy of silence or, worse, induce deliberate falsity. The value of blood tests as a wholesome aid in the quest for truth in the administration of justice in these matters cannot be gainsaid in this day. Their reliability as an indicator of the truth has been fully established. The substantial weight of medical and legal authority attests their accuracy, not to prove paterni”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 326 Pa. Super. 464 - Johnson v. Brinker

2. “(c) Limitation of actions—All actions to establish the paternity of a child born out of wedlock brought under this section must be commenced within six 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 an action may be commenced 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. Bernhart v. Kovach

3. “[T]he first of many thousands of reported cases in America on this subject (according to 163 A.L.R. 940 ) is Commonwealth v. Zammarelli, 1931, 17 Pa. Dist. & Co. R. 229, in which the late Judge Morrow, of Fayette County, granted the defendant a new trial in a bastardy case because the uncontradicted evidence of a medical expert called by the defendant was that blood tests showed the defendant could not have been the father of the child.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 326 Pa. Super. 464 - Johnson v. Brinker