Bates v. Bates’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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Article 7, section 11 provides: “The circuit court shall have jurisdiction in all civil and criminal cases the exclusive jurisdiction of which may not be vested in some other court provided for by this Constitution.” This provision means that unless a cause of action is confided by the Constitution exclusively to another court, it belongs exclusively, or concurrently, to the circuit court. In other words “[a]ll unassigned jurisdiction under the Constitution is vested in the circuit court. . . .” Article 7, section 15, provides: “until the General Assembly shall deem it expedient to establish courts of chancery the circuit court shall have jurisdiction in matters of equity, subject to appeal to the Supreme Court, in such manner as may be prescribed by law.” By Act 166 of 1903, Ark. Code Ann. § 16-13-301 (1987), separate courts of chancery were established by the General Assembly. However, the General Assembly is without authority to give chancery courts any jurisdiction other than that which the equity courts could exercise at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of 1874.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 55 Ark. App. 373 - Winchel v. Craig