Canada v. Ihmsen’s Empirical Analysis
1925
Citation profile
53 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 53 later decisions — most recently November 2024 · most notably Cowin v. Salmon (1943), Allen v. Allen (1976)
53 state decisions — followed in 19 states
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 9 E.H. Smith 555 - Edson v. . Parsons · Frazier v. Patterson · Rastetter v. . Hoenninger · Carmichael v. Carmichael · Bower v. Daniel
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 53 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In the case at bar there is nothing in the wills executed by either party to indicate that it is made pursuant to a contract. The wills are in the ordinary form. While, perhaps, the execution thereof about the same time, indicates that there was some sort of understanding between the plaintiff and the deceased, the exact nature of the contract is not thereby shown. It is not impossible, or even improbable, that some conditions were attached to the contract. The decedent might have reserved the right to change her will upon change of circumstances, and the mere agreement to execute a will was not an agreement not to revoke it. We accordingly think that the wills alone are not sufficient memoranda to satisfy the statute of frauds.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““We find the broad statement at times that equity will enforce a contract to execute mutual wills. See Schouler on Wills, sections 720, 721. Such a contract, however, like any other, must not alone be just, but must also be based on a sufficient and valuable consideration — a principle of law founded on public policy. See Walpole v. Oxford, 3 Ves. Jr. 402 [30 Eng. Reprint, 1076].””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“"The great weight of authority is to the effect that mutual wills, made by separate instruments, do not afford sufficient evidence that the wills were made pursuant to a contract, and that hence, if the contract is shown at all, oral evidence is necessary. [Citations.] * * *"”
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.