Merchants Nat Bank of Boston v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue’s Empirical Analysis
320 U.S. 256 · 1943
Citation profile
237 federal appellate · 53 district · 18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 570 later decisions (10 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2000 · most notably Dobson v. Commissioner (1943), Henslee v. Union Planters National Bank & Trust Co. (1949)
237 federal appellate · 53 district · 18 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Appellate journey
reviewedCommissioner v. Merchants Nat. Bank (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on J. W. Hampton, Jr., & Co. v. United States · Ithaca Trust Co. v. United States · Helvering v. Winmill · Humes v. United States
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 570 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Introducing the element of the widow’s happiness and instructing the trustee to exercise its discretion with liberality to make her wishes prior to the claims of residuary beneficiaries brought into the calculation elements of speculation too large to be overcome, notwithstanding the widow’s previous mode of life was modest and her own resources substantial. We conclude that the Commissioner properly disallowed the deduction for estate tax purposes.”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“at such time or times as my said trustee shall in its sole.discretion deem wise and proper for the comfort, support, maintenance, and/or happiness of my said wife, and it is my wish and will that in the exercise of its discretion with reference to such payments from the principal of the trust fund to my said wife, May L. Field, my said trustee shall exercise its discretion with liberality to my said wife, and consider her welfare, comfort and happiness prior to claims of residuary beneficiaries under this trust.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“necessary to suitably maintain her in as much comfort as she now enjoys”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.