Hale v. Hale’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The appellant is correct that Ark. Code Ann. § 9-12-315 (a)(2) provides for an equitable division of non-marital property given prior to marriage but does not make the same provision for gift property received during marriage. Were we to hold that the statute authorized a chancellor to divide non-marital gift property, we would be adding words to the statute that simply are not there. In prior cases, we have specifically refused to expand the property-division statute judicially to authorize the chancellor to divide non-marital property acquired by gift during marriage. Rather, we have limited the discretion of the chancellor under the statute to the division of property acquired prior to marriage, as the statute provides. See Williford v. Williford, 280 Ark. 71 , 655 S.W.2d 398 (1983); see also Smith v. Smith, 32 Ark. App. 175 , 798 S.W.2d 443 (1990); Yockey v. Yockey, 25 Ark. App. 321 , 758 S.W.2d 421 (1988). We have previously held that property received by descent, apparently during marriage, is not subject to division in a divorce action. See Farris v. Farris, 287 Ark. 479 , 700 S.W.2d 371 (1985).”

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

2. “(a) At the time a divorce decree is entered: (1)(A) All marital property shall be distributed one-half (V2) to each party unless the court finds such a division to be inequitable.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Banks v. Evans