Clapp v. . Fullerton’s Empirical Analysis
1866
Citation profile
101 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 102 later decisions — most recently June 1970 · most notably Connecticut Mut Life Ins Co v. Lathrop (1884), Taylor v. McClintock (1908)
101 state decisions — followed in 15 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.
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 102 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ The right of a testator to dispose of his estate depends neither on the justice of his prejudices nor the soundness of his reasoning. He may do what he will with his own; and if there be no defect of testamentary capacity, and no undue influence or fraud, the law gives effect to his will, though its provisions are unreasonable and unjust.” In re Mitchell’s Estate, 43 Minn. 73 ( 44 N. W. 885 ): “ It is a testator’s privilege' to make such disposition of his property as he pleases, and, if the will is his,—that is, if it is the voluntary act of a competent testator,—it must stand, if properly executed in form.””
2 later decisions 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.