Dodson v. Ward’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. ““In Barney v. Hutchinson, 25 N.M. 82 , 177 P. 890 , we said that a child adopted in 1880 by J. W. Barney and Annie C. Barney, his wife, was, on the death of Annie C. Barney, intestate, entitled to share in her estate as though he were her son. “The court said that the statute of adoption then in force was chapter 31, Laws of 1869-70. The section we have quoted from C.L.1897 was section 5 of that act. The other provisions quoted herein were enacted in 1893 (Laws 1893, c. 32), so the court, in Barney v. Hutchinson, supra, doubtless considered the status of the adopted child as being fixed by section 5 of chapter 31, Laws of 1869-70. Since this last-mentioned act was not repealed until 1915, we must consider it here. A consideration of that section shows that it was the legislative intent that an adopted child should inherit from the person adopting it, else the Legislature would not have said that— “ ‘They shall always be subject to be disinherited for the same legal reasons as are now legal heirs.’ “We have no fault to find with the decision in Barney v. Hutchinson, supra.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hahn v. Sorgen

2. “Throughout the statutes of the several states consanguinity is fundamental in legislative fixing of descent and distribution of property. True, the subject is one of legislative will; but legislation repudiating or eliminating blood relationship from the descent of property would be so abhorrent to every incident of our home and family life as to meet with general disapproval. The courts should depart from this elemental guideship only when forced to do so by an inexorable statutory demand. Our statute is inexorable in its demand that the estate of one dying shall go to his kindred; those of his blood, flesh of his flesh, bone of the bone. To such kindred, . . . and only to those who are kin, those of the same blood, does the chapter anywhere extend .... The statute on adoption must be read into the statute of distribution and descent, but it is to be read in only to effectuate the precise terms of the statute on adoption ....”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. MacCallum v. Seymour's Administrator

3. ““And those persons adopted or legitimized as children or heirs by virtue of this act; shall be considered under the law as legitimate children in regard to their duties and obligations toward the persons that have adopted or legitimized them, and in respect to them, it being understood that they shall always be subject to be disinherited for the same legal reasons, as are now legitimate (legal) heirs.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hahn v. Sorgen