Shippen v. Bailey’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The judgment of the Ohio court with respect to the custody of the children is not of controlling or, indeed, material importance. It was rendered 10 years ago when the children were mere infants. Moreover, it may be that they were not within the jurisdiction of the Ohio court, as they were then living with their grandparents in Pennsylvania, so that the judgment was ineffectual. See Callahan v. Callahan, 296 Ky. 444 , 177 S.W.2d 565 . * * * * * * “But the manner in which this father obtained the custody of these children can not under any circumstances be sanctioned by the courts. He had no right to take the law into his own hands and take his children away from the actual custody of their grandmother. They were in the constructive custody of their mother, to whom the Ohio court had awarded them. To adjudge their custody to him under these circumstances would put the stamp of judicial approval upon that wrongful act. * * * * * * “* * * He [the father] is not without remedy, for he has recourse to the courts of Pennsylvania or Ohio, wherever the children may be domiciled.””

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