Paul v. Ball’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Recurring, then, in this branch of the investigation, to the governing and controlling object to be sought after in the interpretation of wills — the intention of the testator — if that intention is not clearly made manifest by the language of the will itself, it would be a sound canon of interpretation, in our judgment, to give it that construction which would put it most in harmony with our system of jurisprudence and with the statutes of distributions and of wills, which the testator himself would naturally enough expect to be done, if his language should prove so vague and indeterminate as to require construction. If he should fail to be explicit in the language of his will, he would naturally suppose that the .vagueness would be elucidated in the light of the statute of descent and distribution and of the statute of wills.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Dubois v. House

2. ““In construing this will, in reference to this term used in the residuary clause, we must ascertain from the general context of the will whether the testator used it in its restricted or in a more comprehensive sense. If it be palpable from the context of the will that it was his purpose to use it in its restricted sense, then, this being the intention of the testator, we should feel constrained so to declare, though partial intestacy should be the consequence.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Selder v. Stewart