Moore v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 20 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently September 2016
2 federal appellate · 20 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.
Relationships
Relies on Washington Homes, Inc. v. Interstate Land Development Co. · Duncan and Smith v. State · Sellers v. Qualls · Daley v. United Services Automobile Ass'n · Hiss v. Weik
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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““1. The benefactor and beneficiary are involved in a relationship of confidence and trust; 2. The will contains substantial benefit to the beneficiary; 3. The beneficiary caused or assisted in effecting execution of will; 4. There was an opportunity to exert influence; 5. The will contains an unnatural disposition; 6. The bequests constitute a change from a former will; and 7. The testator was highly susceptible to the undue influence.””
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“[U]ndue influence which will avoid a will must be unlawful on account of the manner and motive of its exertion, and must be exerted to such a degree as to amount to force or coercion, so that free agency of the testator is destroyed. The proof must be satisfactory that the will was obtained by this coercion ... or by importunities which could not be resisted, so that the motive for the execution was tantamount to force or fear. Mere suspicion that a will has been procured by undue influence, or that a person had the “power unduly to overbear the will of the testator” is not enough. It must appear that the power was actually exercised, and that its exercise produced the will.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Zook v. Pesce · Upman v. Clarke“"Moore’s scheme to obtain Koontz's property was only to be realized through Koontz’s unconditional devise to Allen. Thus, Moore had to make access to Koontz’s property feasible. By coercing the testator to change the bequest to Allen of the life estate in trust in the 1980 will to the bequest of the entire fee simple estate in the 1984 will, Moore made this goal foreseeable. As the sole beneficiary under Allen's will, Moore would acquire everything Koontz had originally devised to Allen.... It is clear that Moore intended for Allen to serve as the conduit through which he ultimately benefitted. Therefore, had the trial court invalidated only the clause in Koontz’s 1984 will making Moore a beneficiary, and upheld the bequest to Allen, the taint of Moore’s actions would have remained. The only way to ensure that Moore did not benefit from his actions was to invalidate the entire will."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.