Stark v. Watson’s Empirical Analysis
1961
Citation profile
17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently May 2020
17 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 Villier v. Watson's Administratrix · Capitol Steel & Iron Co. v. Fuller · Crescent Ring Co. v. Travelers Indemnity Co. · In Re Roderick's Estate · Coonradt v. Sailors
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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Under the law of adoption, the natural parent and the adopting parent each must consent to the new relationship before the child can be legally adopted. By consent each is bound. The adopted child, the person principally affected by the transaction, has no choice and gives no consent. His natural parent, by his consent to his adoption loses his right to inherit from his natural son. But no one consents for the innocent and helpless subject of the transfer that he shall lose the right to inherit from his natural parent, whose issue, under section 701, he does not cease to be when the right to his control passes to another. Nor does he lose by adoption that right which the law of succession gives him, except when ‘by the terms of express statute or by inexorable implication’ the law of succession has been so limited and restricted.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Patton v. Shamburger“`Obiter dictum is an expression of opinion by the court or judge on a collateral question not directly involved, or mere argument or illustration originating with him, while judicial dictum is an expression of opinion on a question directly involved, argued by counsel, and deliberately passed on by the court, though not necessary to a decision. While neither is binding as a decision, judicial dictum is entitled to much greater weight than the other, and should not be lightly disregarded.'”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““In order to participate in the compensation payable under the death benefit provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act a person must be an heir at law of decedent as defined by the descent and distribution statutes and a dependent as defined by the Workmen’s Compensation Act.””
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.