Ward v. Woods’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Under this statute [KRS 381.430], the Kentucky authorities are unanimous in holding that after severance of the mineral title one who acquires possession of the surface from the same grantor is deemed to hold possession of the minerals as trustee for the holder of the mineral title and, in the absence of an explicit disclaimer and clear repudiation of this subsisting relationship in a manner sufficiently open and notorious to bring home to the mineral owner knowledge or notice of the hostility of the surface holder’s possession, the surface holder, being a trustee in possession, can never acquire title of his cestui que trust by any length of possession for his possession never becomes adverse. The possession of the mineral owner thus being preserved and protected by the statute is not lost nor its continuity interrupted by any length of non-user.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Great Western Land Management, Inc. v. Slusher

2. “We have held may [sic] times that in order for the surface owner to obtain title by adverse possession to the minerals which constitute a severed estate, he must have openly disavowed or repudiated the trust declared by the statute and have exercised dominion over the mineral estate and brought notice thereof to the owner of that estate.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. White Log Jellico Coal Co. v. Zipp