Edwards v. Nelson’s Empirical Analysis
2008
Citation profile
35 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 35 later decisions — most recently February 2026 · most notably Edwards v. Edwards (2009), Perroni v. Sachar (2017)
35 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 First National Bank of DeWitt v. Cruthis · Askew v. Murdock Acceptance Corporation · Patterson v. Isom · Harrison v. State · Helena Regional Medical Center v. Wilson
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 35 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Here, the appellees challenged the validity of Edwards’s appointment as personal representative in the wrongful-death action pending in one division of circuit court. That division of circuit court, however, was not the first court to acquire jurisdiction over the probate matter. Thus, it had no original jurisdiction to decide the validity of an appointment order, which was entered by the circuit court that acquired 1 (jurisdiction over the administration of the decedent’s estate, “to the exclusion of' any other court.” Patterson [v. Isom], 338 Ark. [234,] at 241, 992 S.W.2d [792,] at 796 [1999]. In sum, we conclude that the civil division of circuit court usurped the authority of the probate division of circuit court by its ruling that Edwards’s appointment as personal representative of his father’s estate was void. Accordingly, we reverse the circuit court’s summary-judgment order of dismissal.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Where two actions between the same parties on the same subject, and to test the same rights, are brought in different courts having concurrent jurisdiction, the court which first acquires jurisdiction, its power being adequate to the administration of complete justice, retains its jurisdiction and may dispose of the whole controversy, and no court of coordinate power is at liberty to interfere with its action. This rule rests on comity and the necessity of avoiding conflict in the execution of judgments by independent courts, and is a necessary one because any other rule would unavoidably lead to perpetual collision and be productive of most calamitous results.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“The principle is essential to the proper and orderly administration of the laws; and while its observance might be required on the grounds of judicial comity and courtesy, it does not rest upon such considerations exclusively, but is enforced to prevent unseemly, expensive, and dangerous conflicts of jurisdiction and of process. If interference may come from one side, it may from the other also, and what is begun may be reciprocated indefinitely.”
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.