King Will’s Empirical Analysis
1952
Citation profile
36 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 36 later decisions — most recently June 2017 · most notably Masciantonio Will (1958), Williams v. McCarroll (1953)
36 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 Leedom v. Palmer · Null's Estate · Phillips' Estate · Ash Will · Lawrence's Estate
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 36 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[0]ne may be physically weak but have a perfectly sound and strong mind. So long as the mind, like the captain of a stricken ship, is free to dictate direction and course, its decision will not be questioned in law even though the body be crippled with pain and the spirit awry with torment.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““Nor is the burden of proof placed upon a legatee, in the case of a confidential relation, unless it be shown that he was instrumental in procuring the legacy. Where there is no evidence that the beneficiary solicited the bequest herself or wrote the will or procured it to be written, or that her advice was sought or taken, the existence of intimate friendly relations between the testatrix and beneficiary, such as living with her, nursing her and managing her business do not import undue influence or shift the burden of proof.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Peterson v. McMicken
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.